


Homecoming

by EmilytheLemur



Category: All Hail King Julien
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 24,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27374902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilytheLemur/pseuds/EmilytheLemur
Summary: Julien is missing his brother when suddenly a newcomer arrives in the village with a pleasant surprise, but what is this newcomer really up to?
Relationships: King Julien/OC
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story that’ll be introduced in later chapters.

The sunlight coming into the clearing acted as a spotlight as the prince jumped around in front of his baby brother, wiggling his tail and shaking his hips. The little lemur looked on in wonder, clearly impressed by his older brother's dance moves.

The young prince suggested that he give it a try, and stepped aside as his brother stumbled to his feet and ran into the spotlight. He tried copying what the prince did but lost his balance and fell on his face. The prince burst into laughter.

The baby lemur sat up, his eyes full of tears. The prince stopped laughing at once and crouched down in front of the younger lemur. He patted his head and said to him that it's okay and he'll learn how to properly dance some day. His little brother wiped away his tears and hugged the prince.

Suddenly they were running through the jungle, unseen lemurs screaming and calling for help. The prince found himself up a tree, his little brother cowering beside him. Below fossa circled the trunk, growling in frustration because they couldn't get to the lemurs.

The next thing the prince knew his brother went missing for a terrifying moment, then reappeared on the ground with a fossa towering over him, teeth bared. The prince tried to draw its attention away from his brother, but the last thing he saw was the fossa snatching up the baby lemur before running back into the forest.

The prince froze, staring after the fossa, at first not registering what happened.

"Patch?"

No answer.

"Patch! Come back, Patch!"

The ringtail king woke in a cold sweat. He found himself breathing heavily and his heart was pounding fast in his chest.

After a few moments, he was finally able to calm down and his panic started melting away. But his dream was still fresh in his mind and he felt a familiar stab of grief. Today was the anniversary of when the fossa took his brother, and even though it happened many years ago, the pain he felt right now made it seem like it was only yesterday.

He often wondered what it would have been like to grow up with a sibling, but every time he imagined having his brother there, he reminded himself that it was his fault that he wasn't. Because of him, Patch was never able to live his life; he never got to make any friends; he never got the chance to meet that special someone and settle down and start a family of his own. All missed opportunities, and it was all because of the now king of the lemurs…

_What was I thinking? I shouldn't have taken Patch so close to fossa territory. I should have listened to Mother and Father and stayed closer to the kingdom._

Suddenly he felt another painful stab in his heart as he remembered his parents. If losing his brother hadn't been bad enough, he hasn't seen either of his parents since they set out to find their missing son. When they never returned, everyone assumed the worst and didn't want to send another search party to the same fate.

After that Julien's uncle had been made king since at the time Julien had still been too young to rule over a whole kingdom. But then his uncle had left so suddenly and gave the crown to his nephew. Now he had no family, only his friends, which wasn't a bad thing. There were just moments like this one where he wished things had turned out differently.

He shook his head to clear it, knowing that he had to stop dwelling on the past before he went into a deep depression. Leaving his bamboo house, he climbed through the trees, making his way to the crashed plane where he found his adviser, his bodyguard, the annoying mouse lemur, and…

"Emily," the king greeted her, a huge smile crossing his muzzle as soon as he laid eyes on the female ringtail. She was the one who kept him going day in and day out, the reason he got out of bed, when he really wanted to curl into a ball and mourn the loss of his family. "How are you today?" he asked her.

"I'm good," she replied. As she stared at him, her worried gaze studied him, and he knew what she must be thinking. "How are _you_ doing, my king?"

Julien sighed and gently pushed past her, climbing onto the chair that he had claimed as his throne. "I'm fine," he lied. He didn't want to talk about today, but he knew his friends would just keep bringing it up. He used his foot to spin the chair around to look out the broken window, gazing up at the blue sky. Outside, it looked so peaceful yet guilt ate at Julien on the inside and he didn't know how to make it stop.

Suddenly his adviser appeared in front of him. "Do you want to talk about today, Your Majesty?" he asked.

Julien shook his head. "No," he responded as he jumped out of his chair. He stared down at the mouse lemur. Mort stared back at him, his eyes huge and bright. For a moment the king was reminded of his brother. Patch used to look at him the same way as he would watch Julien show off his dance moves.

He was pulled back to the present by a touch on his shoulder, and he blinked. Emily was beside him. His heart swelled with affection for the female lemur, but then sorrow crashed over him when she said," You can't just keep shutting down this time every year. If you need someone to talk to, you know I'm here for you."

The king shrugged her off and stormed toward the exit of the plane. "I don't want to talk about today!" he called over his shoulder.

He jumped into the tree and climbed down it, aware that the others were following him. Once on the ground, he expected the rest of his subjects to give him sympathetic looks like they always did every year on this day. But then he realized that nobody was around.

"Where is everyone?" Maurice appeared beside the king with the rest of their friends.

Suddenly the orange lemur pushed her way through the group, stopping when she stood in front of her king. "Maybe there's an invasion," she suggested in her British accent as she held her arms out as if to protect Julien, who sighed and rolled his eyes but said nothing. His bodyguard always assumed the worst. When will she learn to relax and have fun?

"I don't think there's an invasion," Emily spoke up, heading to the center of the kingdom. The others ran to catch up to her. When Clover gave her a doubtful look, the female ringtail pointed out," If there was an invasion, it wouldn't be this quiet. We'd hear screams and see lemurs running around in a panic."

Everyone nodded in agreement, deciding that she was right. They continued to walk in silence, but when they got closer to the open clearing where all the lemurs liked to gather, they heard what sounded like a loud commotion like a bunch of animals talking all at once.

"What is that?" Emily questioned as she exchanged a confused look with Maurice.

"Let's go find out." Julien hurried to the clearing, hoping whatever was going on would distract him from missing his brother. He burst out of the bushes and skidded to a halt, his friends stopping beside him.

A large group of lemurs stood in a circle in the middle of the clearing, murmuring amongst themselves. Most looked confused, but there were two or three that wore surprised or shocked expressions.

"What in the world?" Clover turned to her friends like she expected them to have an explanation to what they were seeing. But Emily and Maurice just shrugged, and the little mouse lemur continued to stare at the group with a vacant look in his eyes; clearly his mind was elsewhere at the moment and not on what was happening around him.

"Come on," the king called over his shoulder as he ran over there to see what all the fuss was about. He pushed his way through his subjects until he stood in the middle of the circle. Now he faced a strange lemur who was a ringtail just like the king himself but shorter and with a black spot on his gray belly.

Julien eyed him curiously. "Who are you?"

The newcomer's gaze switched to the crown upon Julien's head. "Your Highness," he greeted the king as he bowed down, showing respect to the higher rate lemur. Julien felt a shiver of pleasure go down his spine.

Behind him, he heard his adviser whisper something to one of the others. "What's that new guy doing?"

It was Emily who answered. "Showing respect to the king of the lemurs, of course, like everyone should do."

Julien smiled to himself, glad to have the female ringtail's support. "Now new guy," he went on, turning back to him. "What's your name?"

"They call me Elliot."

Julien blinked. The king opened his mouth to ask who they were, but suddenly he was pushed aside. Maurice stopped in front of Elliot, and looked him up and down. His gaze lingered on the spot on Elliot's belly.

"I-It can't be," the aye-aye stammered, his eyes growing huge.

Emily walked up. "What's wrong, Maurice?"

"Do I need to show this lemur out of the kingdom?" As if to make herself seem threatening, Clover cracked her knuckles and glared at the newcomer.

"No!" Maurice threw his hands up dramatically. Then he turned to Julien, who was staring at him with huge eyes. What had gotten into his adviser? "Julien, don't you recognize him?" He pointed to Elliot. "I mean he's older but the spot on his belly is unmistakable."

Julien looked over the new lemur again. For a couple of moments he still didn't understand what Maurice was talking about, and Elliot seemed confused too. Then a long ago memory flashed in Julien's mind. "P-Patch, is that you?"

Patch shook his head. "N-No, I told you. My name is Elliot."

"No," Maurice said. "Your name is Patch and this here—" He pointed to Julien—" is your brother."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story that’ll be introduced in later chapters.

The chair squeaked under Julien as the king crouched there, unable to sit still. His fur was crawling with excitement. On one side of him, Maurice stood, looking thoughtful while Clover, on Julien's other side, narrowed her eyes, her gaze betraying her mistrust of the situation. Mort stood next to Emily, who patiently waited for someone to talk.

More lemurs peeked through the window as if they were curious to know what was going to happen now that the king's brother had returned. The king's brother; Julien wiggled with excitement.

 _My brother has returned to the kingdom!_ the ringtail thought, still hardly able to believe it. For many years he believed Patch was gone forever, turned into a snack for the fossa, the wild cats who roamed the far side of the island and hunted lemurs. But now here he was, standing in front of all of them, as liveful and healthy as ever.

After Maurice told Patch that he and Julien were brothers, the three of them and Clover, Mort, and Emily returned to the crashed plane. The rest of the kingdom crowded outside, eyes shining, tails flicking. Tension was high. Everyone was waiting for Julien to speak, but Maurice beat him to it.

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration!" The aye-aye glanced at Julien. "Don't you agree, Your Majesty?"

Julien nodded eagerly.

"Wait a minute!"

Everyone turned to the speaker, a lemur with an orange front side, and a black back, hands, arms, feet, tail, and black around his eyes. He eyed Patch suspiciously. "Brother to the king or not, he's still a stranger, and we learned from the mountain lemurs that strangers can't be trusted!"

The female lemur beside him rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh Weasel, in case you didn't notice, there's a huge difference between him—" She pointed to Patch—" and the mountain lemurs. He doesn't have muscles like them."

A lemur who looked just like Weasel spoke up. "My brother has a point though. We don't know where he's been all this time. Maybe he has been staying with the mountain lemurs! I say we drive him out once and for all!"

Yowls of agreement broke out.

"I didn't mean to start a riot, Elizabeth." Weasel glared at his sister who always enjoyed causing trouble.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, eyes blazing with anger, but before she could say another word the female lemur at Weasel's side interrupted their fight. "Guys, stop it! Kicking him out is not your decision. It's King Julien's."

"Thank you, Lilian." Julien felt a rush of relief. For a moment he feared he had lost control of his kingdom, but now everyone was calming down and avoiding Julien's gaze as if ashamed about agreeing to send the king's brother into exile. As Julien's subjects rose against him, an alarm look flashed across Patch's face, but now he was relaxing and smoothing down his ruffled fur.

"Now," Julien went on, turning back to Patch. He tried to be serious, but he was far too excited. Unable to sit still any longer, Julien jumped out of his seat and landed in front of his brother. "I'm so happy to see you alive, Patch!"

Julien threw his arms around him, and he felt Patch hug him back. Patch smiled, but where he stood next to Emily, Mort could see that it was forced. The others might think he was zoning out, but since he found out that this stranger was Julien's brother, Mort has paid close attention, afraid that Patch would steal all of Julien's love. It took him forever to get used to Emily, and he still didn't like how close she was to the king.

Mort narrowed his eyes. There was something about this lemur that felt wrong.

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"And that's my kingdom!" Julien announced, coming to the end of the tour. He halted and forced Patch to stop as well. "Did you recognize anything?" He looked hopefully at his brother but frowned when Patch shook his head.

Maurice appeared beside Julien. "Lots have changed, Your Majesty. It makes sense that he doesn't recognize anything."

"I think I remember the crashed plane," Patch said slowly, staring up at it through the leaves above their heads.

"That's been here for ages!" Maurice chuckled.

"Yeah!" Julien agreed. "Momo was only a little baby when it crashed landed on Madagascar!"

Maurice started nodding, but then he realized that Julien just called him ancient. "Hey, I'm not _that_ old!"

The king playfully stuck his tongue out at his adviser, and Patch laughed at the two. Close by, Mort watched them while Clover kept guard a few feet away. The mouse lemur snorted and crossed his arms.

"What's wrong, Mort?"

The voice made him jump. Then he realized it was just Emily. "I don't trust this new lemur," he admitted.

"Why not?" the female ringtail questioned. "He's Julien's brother so he can't be all that bad." Affection showed on her face as she stared at the king.

"There's something very bad about him," Mort argued. "I don't know what, but I will find out."

Emily frowned and turned back to him. "You're just afraid Patch will steal all of Julien's attention, and while that might be true—" Was that hurt in her voice? "—you should just be happy that for the first time in many years, Julien is finally happy on this day. His brother has returned, Mort. He's not dead. It's a miracle!"

The mouse lemur blinked up at her, at a loss for words.

She patted his head. "At least pretend to be happy for him and not ruin this reunion, okay?" Before he could respond, she went to go join the three males, followed by Clover, who kept looking around as if watching out for danger.

Mort stood there alone for another moment and then finally joined his friends.

"The tour was great," Patch was saying as Mort came up. "But if you excuse me I have to go to the little lemurs’ bush."

"Get it!" Julien exclaimed. "Because you're the little brother!" He continued to laugh at the joke he made himself, but when nobody joined in, he stopped laughing and cleared his throat, hot with embarrassment. "It's over there." He pointed to some nearby bushes.

"Thanks." Patch made his way over there, pushing through the bushes. As the leaves swished back into place, Mort narrowed his eyes.

 _He's up to something,_ the mouse lemur thought. Making sure none of the others were watching him, he followed Patch. _Where is he going?_ Mort wondered after awhile of tracking him.

He stayed far enough behind that Patch couldn't see him but still close enough to keep an eye on him as he took a trail deep into the jungle. Then he took a sharp turn away from the lemurs side of the island. At first Mort wondered where he was going, then it dawned on him.

_Fossa territory!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story that’ll be introduced in later chapters.

After King Julien, Maurice, and the rest of their friends left to show Patch around, the other lemurs returned to the center of the kingdom, the clearing where everyone liked to gather. Among them was Weasel. Lilian and his sister followed him.

Elizabeth kicked rocks out of her path. "I still say we should have driven him out," she grumbled.

"He's the king's brother!" Lilian reminded her. "Exiling him would have been wrong."

"You just say that because you have a crush on Julien." Elizabeth snorted and kicked another rock, but this one went soaring through the air.

"Ow!" a lemur exclaimed when the rock hit him in the head. He turned a glare on Elizabeth. Standing her ground, Elizabeth glared back at him. The lemur lowered his gaze with a sigh and walked away.

"Ha, I win!" Elizabeth cheered, sticking her tongue out at the retreating lemur.

Weasel glanced at Lilian, noticing that she was blushing. Clearly Elizabeth had embarrassed her by saying loudly that she liked Julien, and Elizabeth didn't even seem to care. And she was laughing that she had hurt a fellow lemur. He was ashamed to call her family.

"Elizabeth, do you always have to be so mean and cause trouble?" Weasel demanded.

Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't have to. It's just so much fun!" A smirk crossed her muzzle.

Rolling his eyes at her, Weasel turned to Lilian. "Are you okay?" he asked her. Lilian felt more like a sister than Elizabeth ever had, and he felt a strong brotherly instinct toward her.

Lilian nodded slowly. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Try to ignore her," she added, glancing at Elizabeth. "She's just a bully."

Was that supposed to make him feel better?

To his relief, Elizabeth walked away, but he frowned as he watched her push lemurs out of her way to cut in line for the water slide. "So what do you think of the return of the king's brother?" Lilian asked him, changing the subject.

Turning his attention away from his sister, Weasel turned back to Lilian. "I'm still not sure if we can trust him," he admitted. "We got tricked into believing we could trust the mountain lemurs, but you saw what happened… I don't want to be a prisoner ever again."

"I don't either," Lilian sympathized with him. "But like I said he doesn't have their muscles so even if he was up to something, I'm pretty sure we could take him." She punched the palm of her hand determinedly. "We outnumber him after all!" As if to prove her point, she gestured to all the lemurs around them.

Weasel narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "We need to find out if we can trust him or not before it's too late."

Lilian put her head to the side. "How do you suppose we do that?" she asked in confusion.

"I have an idea, but we need some help, and I can only think of one lemur for the job." Lilian leaned in so Weasel could whisper his plan in her ear.

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Patch had been gone for a considerably long time, and the others were starting to worry about him. Did he get lost? Did a predator get him? Julien didn't think he could handle losing his brother for a second time. At some point, Emily had noticed Mort's absence as well, but the others didn't seem to notice or if they did, they didn't care, so she decided not to mention his disappearance.

 _He probably went after Patch,_ she guessed, remembering his distrust of the king's brother.

Finally Julien couldn't take it any longer. "I'm going to go look for him!" he announced, turning toward the path Patch had taken into the jungle. But suddenly Clover appeared in front of him, holding her hands up.

"Wait, Your Majesty," she said. "If there's trouble, you shouldn't go toward it. We should hide you."

"I'm not hiding when my brother could need help!" Julien insisted, crossing his arms. "I lost him once; I'm not losing him again… even if that means... he loses… me…" He unfolded his arms and gulped. Did he really mean that?

Maurice walked up. "Julien, that's very noble of you, but the kingdom needs you. We survived without Patch before, but we can't survive without our king. I'm sorry, Your Majesty," he added when Julien widened his eyes in shock. "I didn't mean for that to sound so harsh, but it's the truth."

The king looked torn. Emily stepped forward. "I'll go with him." She smiled to herself. She loved any alone time she could get with Julien. But she frowned when Maurice and Clover also offered to go with the king. She couldn't say no though. She had no reason to. After all, four lemurs were safer together than two.

They started heading away when they heard rustling behind them. Julien turned around hopefully, expecting to see Patch, but he sighed when Lilian stepped out of the bushes. She blinked, looking them over. "Where's Mort?" she asked.

The others started glancing around. "Where _is_ Mort?" Maurice questioned.

Julien shrugged. "Who cares?" he murmured. "I'm more worried about my brother."

"Patch's not here either?" Lilian looked worried.

Emily frowned. "What's wrong, Lilian?"

The young lemur avoided eye contact and shifted her feet. Finally she sighed but still didn't look at anyone. "Weasel thinks we can't trust Patch. He's worried because of the mountain lemurs."

"Yes, he said all that during our private meeting that wasn't so private because you all were there!" Julien facepalmed. "Anyways," he went on," Patch is my brother. I know my brother. We can trust him."

For a moment or two nobody spoke. Then Maurice cleared his throat and everyone turned to him. "I know you want to believe you know your brother, Your Majesty, but you never really got to know him. He was barely walking when… the fossa… took him..." The aye-aye spoke slowly toward the end, finally trailing off, looking thoughtful and confused.

"What is it, Maurice?" asked Emily.

"I just realized something…" Maurice paused and glanced around at the others.

"Just spit it out," Julien ordered, starting to lose his patience.

Maurice looked up at the king. "How did Patch survive the fossa?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment please! Thank you!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story like a few lemurs and most fossa who has names.

The sun was reaching its highest point in the sky as Mort continued to track Patch through fossa territory. Ideas kept popping into his head as what Patch could be up to. He knew that none of them made sense, especially the volcano one, but he wasn't going back without some information to give his king.

Patch moved at a fast pace and he turned corners as if he knew exactly where he was going, and Mort started to wonder how well he knew this area. Finally Patch stopped and Mort slipped into a cluster of bushes. He strained his ears. Were those pawsteps? Hardly daring to breathe, Mort listened closely.

Then he heard a low voice. "Elliot has returned."

"Greetings, Mac." That was Patch.

"Have you come with news?" a second voice asked with a hint of impatience.

"Yes, Sander. They think I am the king's brother. They keep calling me Patch."

There was silence for a moment, and Mort took this opportunity to peek through the leaves of the bush he was hiding in. Three fossa stood in front of Patch, but the ringtail with a black spot on his belly didn't look scared. He stared calmly at the predators, and the fossa didn't seem hostile.

Finally the first fossa spoke again. "That could come in handy. Get close to the king," he told Patch. "Earn his trust and when he least expects it, that is when we will strike." He let out a menacing laugh that sent shivers down Mort's back.

 _He is evil!_ "I have to warn King Julien!" he said out loud, about to make a run back to the kingdom, but when he turned around his path was blocked by the fossa, this time their teeth bared. Rustling behind him made him glance over his shoulder to see Patch walking through the bushes to join them.

"What are _you_ doing here?" the king's brother demanded.

"I followed you!" Mort admitted, pointing accusingly at Patch. "Because I knew you were up to something! Wait until I tell King Julien!"

The fossa named Mac rolled his eyes. "Annoying little creature. What do we do with it?"

The third fossa crouched down and snarled at Mort. "Fossa eat."

"Simon, sit," the second fossa growled at Simon, who let out a huff but obediently sat down on his hackles.

"Now, what do we do with him?" Mac repeated, flicking his tail at Mort. "He could ruin our plan if he warns the lemurs. We need to make sure he doesn't do that. But that doesn't mean we eat him," he quickly added when Simon opened his mouth, but he closed his jaws and his ears drooped sadly.

"Remember, Simon," said Sander," we need all the lemurs in order for our plan to work."

This was weird. Mort might not be the brightest around, but even he knew fossa eat, fossa sleep. It was unheard of fossa planning. What were they planning though? _I have to find out and warn King Julien!_

"Take him back to the others," Patch decided. "We can't risk him exposing me. But I do need to get back before they start to suspect something. I'll return with more news when I can."

Mac dipped his head. "Don't fail us."

"I won't.” Patch hurried away, soon disappearing from sight.

While the fossa was watching Patch leave, Mort tried to sneak away, but a paw pinned his tail to the ground and suddenly he was hanging upside down, staring into the mouth of a fossa. For a moment he thought they had changed their minds about eating him, but then one of the others slapped Simon on the back of his head.

"Simon, no. Now come on." Mac turned and stalked away, Sander closed behind. Simon sunk his teeth in Mort's scruff and followed his friends. Mort tried to wiggle free but couldn't. He sighed and went limp.

_What now?_

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"What are you trying to say, Maurice?" the king demanded, crossing his arms angrily. "Are you accusing my brother of something he didn't do? Because if you are," Julien went on before Maurice could answer," just stop it. I escaped the fossa many times, and I'm not up to anything! He is my brother after all. Maybe he got my fossa dodging skills."

To prove to his adviser how amazing he is, Julien started jumping around, pretending like fossa was attacking him. He moved out of the way just before imaginary flesh ripping teeth closed on his tail. Not watching where he was stepping, he tripped over a root and he lost his balance, bumping into something solid and fuzzy. Alarm shot through him when he saw Emily lying on the ground, looking dazed.

"Oh, I didn't mean to knock you over!" Julien reached out, taking hold of her hand and helping her back to her feet.

Emily smiled at him. "That's okay, Your Majesty. I'm not hurt."

Julien felt himself blushing as he stared into her bright green eyes. Then he was distracted from the female lemur when Maurice started talking. "I didn't mean he was up to something," he said. "I was just wondering how a baby lemur who barely knew how to walk escaped predators like the fossa. They once ate half the kingdom, babies and adults! It just doesn't make any sense…"

"He's right," Clover agreed with the aye-aye. "He is definitely up to something! And we need to find out what that something is!"

"Now wait a minute!" Maurice widened his eyes. "I said I didn't mean he's up to something. It's just… weird, that's all."

"But he has to be up to something," Clover insisted. "He escapes the fossa, and years after everyone thinks he's dead, he just suddenly shows up again. It's more than weird. It's suspicious!"

"Maybe Weasel was right not to trust him," Lilian murmured.

Julien couldn't take it any longer. "Stop it! All of you! I told you my brother is not up to anything, and I want to hear no more of this nonsense! Okay?" He stood with authority, daring anyone to say something else bad about Patch. He couldn't believe they were even talking about all this right in front of him.

Maurice, Clover, and Lilian bowed their heads, avoiding meeting the king's gaze. Emily appeared beside him. "We shouldn't be discussing this. Look at the sun." She pointed up. Julien followed her gesture. The sun was starting to set. "Patch has been gone way too long. We need to go find him."

"She's right," Julien said. "Come on everyone." The king turned to leave, but he froze when the bushes started rustling and Patch came walking out nonchalantly.

"Hey," he greeted them.

Joy shot through Julien. "Patch!" He ran to his brother and hugged him tightly. "Oh, I was so worried about you. You were gone for so long, I thought something bad had happened to you!"

Clover appeared next to them, looking suspiciously at Patch. "What took you?" she demanded.

Patch slipped out of Julien's arms. "Sorry, I went too far and I realized I didn't know my way back. I finally got directions from someone."

"Where's Mort?" asked Emily, knowing that he had followed Patch because he didn't trust him. "Did you see him?"

"Oh yeah I saw him." Patch nodded slowly. "He said he had something else to do and to tell you all that he'll see you later."

 _That's odd,_ Emily thought, frowning. Mort is almost always hanging around Julien and Maurice. It was totally out of the ordinary to see him with someone else or off by himself. _I have a bad feeling about this…_

"So anyways," Patch went on before any more accusations could be made," it's getting pretty late. Was there anything else you wanted to show me?"

Julien thought for a moment, before an idea popped into his head. "Just one thing, and now is the perfect time to go there. Come on!" He grabbed his brother's hand and dragged him away with him, aware that the others were following them. Emily brought up the rear. She was starting to have doubts about Patch's intentions, like the rest of their friends.

_Ever since he's shown up, everything just felt weird and out of place. For Julien's safety, I need to keep a close eye on him. And I also need to find out what happened to Mort. I have a feeling Patch isn't telling the truth._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment! Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

As the group rose to the top of the plane, the sun was just beginning to set, casting beautiful rays of orange and pink onto the treetops. Julien was in the lead, guiding his brother along the back of the airplane, while the others followed them apprehensively. They were still wary of Patch. He had been missing most of the day and then returned with news from Mort, saying he had other plans. Julien was the only one oblivious to the strangeness of his brother.

"Something's not right here," Maurice whispered to Clover, Lilian, and Emily. "Julien doesn't want it to be true, but I don't think we can trust Patch."

Lilian and Emily exchanged glances before agreeing with the aye-aye. "And what about Mort?" Emily added. "I'm starting to really worry about him."

"Yeah. Shouldn't we send someone out to look for him?" Lilian questioned, but Maurice shook his head.

"I'm sure Mort will be fine," he insisted. "I'm more worried about Patch. He's up to something and we need to find out what so we can warn Julien."

Clover stepped forward. "Just say the word and I will take care of him." She cracked her knuckles, then punched the palm of her hand threatening.

"No!" Maurice exclaimed which caused Julien and Patch to turn to him. The aye-aye swallowed nervously. Did Patch just narrowed his eyes?

Rage burned inside Julien once more. "What is the meaning of this? Are there more accusations being made here?"

"No, Your Highness," Maurice quickly answered, shifting his feet nervously. "No one dares question your final decision. Whatever you say, we believe."

"We just hope you thought this through…" Emily added hesitantly, and Julien gasped. Even Emily was against him. Julien was growing tired of them talking badly about his brother, especially right in front of him!

"Enough!" Julien exclaimed angrily. "I will hear no more of this! Come along, my brother. We shall leave these others behind." He grabbed Patch's arm and pulled him away.

Maurice, Clover, Lilian, and Emily watched as they jumped into the trees. Then they glanced at each other, frowning. "What have we done?" Emily murmured.

"Julien was excited to see his brother again and we ruined it for him." Lilian sighed miserably.

"I still say Patch is up to no good," Clover insisted. "But I do feel bad," she added, shifting standing positions. "We shouldn't have spoken about Patch like that in front of him and Julien."

"Come on, guys— um gals," Maurice quickly corrected himself. "Let's go apologize." He hurried away, toward the trees, and the others followed him. Maurice, Lilian, and Emily waited while Clover checked inside the plane for the king and his brother. The orange lemur returned, shaking her head.

"Where did they go?" Lilian wondered.

"They couldn't have gotten far," Maurice pointed out. "We'd be able to find them faster if we split up. Let's meet back here and whoever finds the king, bring him and Patch back with you."

The others nodded and hurried off in different directions. Maurice stayed near the plane. He checked inside one more time in case Clover missed something. Then he climbed down the tree and gazed around. "Your Majesty!" he called out, looking in a bush and then behind a tree. "Your Majesty! King Julien! Patch!" Nothing. Maurice sighed. "Where did they go?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Clover checked behind every tree, around every bush, but there was no sign of her king or his brother. She forced passing lemurs to stop and answer questions.

"Have you seen King Julien?" she demanded a family of lemurs who stared at her with huge, scared eyes.

"N-No, we haven't seen him," the mother stammered, holding her infant closer to her chest.

With a sigh, Clover let them go. She kept asking around, but nobody knew where the king or his brother went. "But I can't give up!" she said out loud, and she continued her search.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leaves hit her face as Lilian ran through the forest, but she didn't care. She had to get to the clearing just in case Julien was there. She felt awful about what happened. It was a miracle from the Gods that Julien's brother had returned after years of everyone believing he was dead at the jaws of the fossa, and it had been clear that Julien just wanted to make up for lost time. But Lilian and the others wouldn't let him enjoy their reunion.

Bursting out of the bushes, she immediately spotted Weasel. He was talking to a large group of lemurs that surrounded him. His twitching tail betrayed his annoyance. Nearby, Elizabeth was watching them, a smirk on her face. Clearly, she liked seeing her brother so uncomfortable.

Lilian ran over to her. "What's going on?' she asked, confused.

Elizabeth shrugged. "I was just having some fun when those uptight lemurs—“ She gestured to the lemurs talking to Weasel— "got all offended and told my brother on me! Whatever." She huffed and crossed her arms.

_Typical Elizabeth,_ thought Lilian. She always plays the victim, but she probably did something to annoy the others like cutting in line for the water slide or throwing mangoes at them. The "fun" she calls is really just her causing trouble. But right now Lilian had no time to worry about any of that. There was no sign of Julien in the clearing. She had to speak with Weasel.

Walking up behind him, she tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped, startled. Glancing at her, he sighed and relaxed. "Oh, Lilian. It's you. Did Elizabeth tell you what she did?" he asked.

"No, but—"

"She broke off a branch and started swinging it around," Weasel went on, interrupting the female lemur.

"Weasel—" she tried again, but once more he didn't let her talk.

"She _accidentally—_ " He put air quotes to that word—" smashed these lemurs’ dinner. I'm trying to calm the situation, but everyone is very upset with Elizabeth. I pointed out that there's plenty more mangoes to go around, but they say they are getting tired of Elizabeth always causing trouble. I don't know what I'm going to do, Lilian…"

"I'm sorry, Weasel." Lilian frowned. "I wish I could help you, but I'm looking for the king. Have you seen him?"

Weasel blinked. "Julien? Yes, actually."

"You have?" Joy rose in Lilian. "Where?"

"Him and Patch came running through here in a hurry like all the fossa was on their tails. Lilian, what's going on?"

"I'll explain on the way," Lilian promised. "Come on, Weasel! Let's see if we can catch up to them!" She took off in the direction Weasel pointed to, the orange-and-black lemur right behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They had the whole kingdom covered. Maurice stayed close to the plane. Lilian checked the clearing, while Clover walked the village and asked lemurs passing by if they've seen the king. Emily circled the outskirts of the kingdom in case they got this far. She knew it was dangerous being so close to the fossa side of the island and she had to keep her guard up, but she also had to find Julien.

Kicking a rock into a bush, she groaned miserably. "How could I hurt him like that?" she demanded herself. "I should have kept my worries to myself or better yet, just believe him when he said his brother wasn't up to anything." She sighed. "I hope one of the others has found them already."

She froze when she heard rustling behind her. Spinning around, she prepared for the worst, but instead sighed with relief when Julien and Patch stepped out. She ran to her king and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Your Majesty, I'm so sorry for questioning you. I'll never do it again. I'm so glad to see you!" She hugged him tighter, but she started when she heard him gasping for air. Letting go, she stammered," S-Sorry."

He fixed his crooked crown, then smiled at her. "I'm glad to see you, too," he said.

"We were actually just talking about you," Patch admitted with a sly look at Julien.

"You were?" Emily blinked in surprise.

Startled, Julien stared dumbfounded before snapping out of it. "No we weren't!" he insisted, blushing as he remembered the conversation he and his brother had right before running into Emily.

_"So what's with you and that female ringtail?" Patch had asked._

_"Which one? Lilian or Emily?"_

_"Um… Emily?"_

_Julien started stumbling over his own words. "Um… I… um… I don't… know what you're talking… a-about…"_

_"Oh, come on, brother. I saw the way you two look at each other. Are you two… together?" Patch looked at him knowingly._

_Julien sighed longingly._

And that's when they ran into Emily, so Julien was caught off guard when Patch mentioned to her that they had been talking about her.

Julien opened his mouth to change the subject, about to ask Emily what she's doing way out here, when he heard a low growl in his ear. Fear froze him.

_Fossa!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

As Lilian and Weasel wandered through the jungle, the sun set completely and the moon came out, leaving the island looking dark and forbidden. By this time Lilian would be asleep. She has never been out past sunset before. Nearby she heard something which made her jump and she hid behind Weasel.

The orange-and-black lemur looked down at her. "It was just a bird," he assured her.

Lilian relaxed for a moment before jumping again. "What was that?"

"A frog."

This time they heard a noise that made both of them jump and huddle together. "That sounded like a… fossa," Weasel whispered nervously.

“Help!” someone screamed.

"And that's King Julien!" Lilian exclaimed.

"Come on!" Weasel took off toward the noise with Lilian right behind him, but when they got closer, they slipped behind a tree. Peeking out, they saw fossa standing between Julien and the lemurs' side of the island. Emily was with him, hiding behind the king and visibly shaking. Patch was also there, but he didn't seem as scared as the others.

"What do we do?" Lilian said loudly. Weasel covered her mouth and hissed in her ear," Shh."

They fell silent and watched as the fossa stalked closer to the lemurs. "King Julien, what are we going to do?" Emily begged her king, looking up at him with pleading eyes, clearly expecting him to come up with a plan.

Julien looked around. "Run!" He tried to make a break for it, but a fossa blocked his path. He doubled back, only to run into yet another fossa. Seeming to give up on his running away plan, he retreated back to Emily and his brother.

Emily glared at the king, upset with him for attempting to run off like a coward and leave her to face the fossa without him. Julien lowered his gaze and shifted his feet, his expression revealing his guilt.

One of the fossa turned to Patch. "Good job, Elliot. You did well. Mac will be pleased."

Patch dipped his head. "Thank you, Sander."

Lilian saw Weasel narrow his eyes. "I knew we couldn't trust him," he growled, tearing leaves off a nearby bush in his anger.

Julien gasped. "Patch! You're working for the fossa?"

"I told you, my name's not Patch!" the king's brother snapped at him. "And I'm working _with_ them. Now that we have the king, we can return for the rest of the lemurs." An unsettling smile crossed Patch's muzzle.

"W-What are you going to d-do with us?" Emily stammered.

Patch's grin grew bigger. "You'll see."

The fossa named Sander growled, interrupting the lemurs' conversation. "Enough talk! Simon! Nate!" Two fossa stepped forward. "Grab the king and that female lemur."

"My name is Emily!" the ringtail told Sander.

The fossa rolled his eyes. "I don't care. Simon? Nate?" The two fossa nodded to Sander and snatched up the lemurs by the scruff.

"Hey! Let me go!" Julien demanded, struggling in the fossa’s jaws to get free. "I commend you to let me down right now!"

The fossa didn't listen to him of course and started retreating back to the predator side of the island. Patch brought up the rear. Lilian watched them go. Terrified, she started backing up, but she froze when she stepped on a twig. Patch snapped back around, his gaze landing on their hiding place. Weasel grabbed Lilian's arm and yanked her down.

Neither of them dared breathe. Patch took a step toward their tree, but a growl sounded up ahead. "Elliot! Come on!"

"Coming!" Patch stayed there for a moment longer before chasing after his fossa friends.

Weasel let out a sigh of relief. "That was close!"

"Sorry," Lilian murmured, frowning.

"Don't worry about it. Now come on," Weasel added, heading back to the center of the kingdom with Lilian right behind him. "We must tell Maurice about this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Snoring kept Mort up. He glanced around nervously at the fossa pack, then looked at the fossa that was guarding him so that he wouldn't run away while the rest of its friends slept.

Mort noticed with rising hope that the fossa was struggling to stay awake. It sat there, its eyes slowly closing as its head bobbed. A couple of times it jerked back awake, but finally it gave into the nagging call of sleep. It crouched down, placing its head on its paws, and its snores told Mort that it was fast asleep.

 _Now's your chance!_ a voice said in his head, and another one added, _Get back to King Julien and the feet!_

Soundlessly, he started sneaking away. He was stepping over a sleeping fossa when a yowl split through the air. At once the whole pack was awake and the fossa Mort had been climbing over turned on him, showing its teeth.

Mort laughed nervously. "Hey."

Instantly, the fossa had him pinned down. "Don't move," it growled at him.

Mort was about to respond when a dark figure appeared at the top of the cliff, looking down at the pack. It was a fossa. Mort recognized him as Sander, who was there with Patch when he discovered that the king's brother was plotting with the fossa. Two more stepped up beside him, creatures hanging from their jaws. Mort gasped.

"King Julien!"

He noticed Emily too, but his focus was on Julien. He struggled beneath the fossa. It was to no avail. Its grip tightened on him.

Sander jumped down the rocks, landing neatly in front of the gathering pack. The fossa holding Mort picked him up by the scruff and padded over there to hear just as the rest of Sander's patrol joined him. Mort also recognized Simon, the fossa that didn't speak in full sentences like his friends.

"We have the king!" Sander announced. Cheers greeted his words, and Simon threw Julien in the middle of the pack. Mort braced himself for a bloody scene as the fossa tore the ringtail apart, but to his surprise none of them moved. They kept their eyes on Sander.

For the first time Mort noticed Patch standing beside Sander. He looked satisfied with himself. Mort narrowed his eyes. _What does he have planned?_ the mouse lemur wondered.

A fossa stepped forward. _Mac._ "Now we shall return for the rest of the lemurs!" he said, and the pack growled in agreement. "Simon, Damon, Adain, Soren, and Heath," Mac went on," stay here and guard our prisoners. The rest of you, come with me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

The pack started heading out, and Patch was about to follow them, but Mac suddenly appeared in front of him. The ringtail lemur blinked up at him in surprise.

"This is a mission for _real_ fossa," he growled, which only confused Patch more.

"I am a real fossa!" Patch objected.

"Sure," Mac chuckled as he pushed Patch aside and ran to catch up to the rest of the patrol heading toward the lemurs' side of the island. Patch stared after him, frowning. What just happened? Mac found him as a baby and raised him, and all of his life Mac told him that he was a fossa, that he belonged with the pack. When someone would say otherwise, he'd stand up for Patch. But now he took back everything he ever said to Patch by saying he wasn't a real fossa. That cut him deep.

Sighing miserably, Patch walked to the five fossa chosen to watch over the prisoners. He huffed when he heard them laughing at him. Hot with embarrassment, he flopped down on the ground with his back to them.

"Psst!"

Patch jumped and turned around. From where he, Emily, and Mort stood surrounded by the fossa, the king was calling out to him, trying to get his attention. He gestured for Patch to come closer. Groaning, Patch got up and went over there.

"What do you want?" he demanded with a temper. Mac had humiliated him.

Julien frowned at him. "I'm sorry that your fossa friend said those things, but he's right, you know." Patch narrowed his eyes at him. Before he could give a sharp retort, though, the king went on. "You're not a fossa. You're a lemur, and even more you're my brother. If you come back to the kingdom, we can be a family and I'll never reject you."

His offer was very tempting, especially after what Mac said to him, but his loyalty belonged with the fossa. They did raise him after all, even if most of them teased and bullied him for being an outsider all his life.

"Your Majesty, you can't seriously be trying to reason with him," Emily said, turning to Julien in surprise. "He may be a lemur, but he's proven that deep down he's a fossa."

"Well technically," Julien cut in," if he was a fossa, we'd be in his belly right now. Speaking of which," he went on in a surprised tone," why haven't any fossa tried to eat us yet?"

"They need all the lemurs," Mort mindlessly said, staring straight ahead at nothing.

Emily and Julien blinked at him before turning to Patch, who sighed. The plan was already in play. There was nothing they could do to stop it, so he saw no harm in telling them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Maurice! Maurice!"

The aye-aye turned around when he heard his name being called. He was surprised to see Lilian and Weasel running to him urgently. They stopped in front of him, panting.

"What's wrong?" he asked anxiously.

Lilian, still panting, opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the leaves above them rustled. Maurice noticed that Lilian and Weasel huddled closer together. He blinked. What's gotten into them?

A branch swayed and Clover appeared. She hopped down, and Lilian let out a sigh of relief, while Weasel looked embarrassed about being so easily spooked.

"There's no sign of the king," the orange lemur announced. "Did one of you have better luck?"

Weasel exchanged a look with Lilian. "I'm not sure about _better_ luck," he responded, turning back to the others. "But we know where King Julien is."

Maurice's heart lifted. "Where?"

Weasel's voice was replaced by a growl. Startled Maurice spun around to find himself face to face with a fossa. He gasped and jumped back, accidentally bumping into Clover. Instantly the king's bodyguard pushed him toward the others and launched herself at the fossa. Her foot struck it right in the face. It stumbled backward, then shook its head and crouched down, growling.

Clover ready herself for another attack, but suddenly more fossa slipped out of the bushes, circling the lemurs.

"Wait!" Maurice called to Clover, noticing that she was about to jump on the fossa. "There's too many of them. You can't possibly fight them all."

"I can try." Clover crouched low.

"Maurice is right," Weasel said before she could launch herself at the fossa again. "You won't be able to win against all of them. We are goners." He turned to Lilian and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

Lilian was about to respond when suddenly the patrol of fossa backed away from them and sat down. Maurice was confused. Weren't they going to eat them? A fossa stepped into the middle of the circle and faced the lemurs with his head held high.

"You are not goners if you obey me," it growled. "Do you understand?"

"No," Maurice said without thinking. When the fossa narrowed its eyes, he stammered," Y-Yes. I-I mean… what is going on?"

"You are without a king," another fossa announced.

Maurice snapped around. "What!"

"Don't worry," the first fossa said. "He's not dead. We just have him, and now we have the rest of the kingdom too. As we speak," the predator went on," the rest of our patrol are gathering the other lemurs and bringing them home with them."

Maurice was confused. They weren't acting like the bloodthirsty fossa he knew. Once they eat half the kingdom! Now they were kidnapping King Julien and gathering the rest of the kingdom together to do only the Gods knew.

"Let's go," the fossa growled and it turned around to walk away. The others herded the lemurs with them, pushing them along. When they would hesitate, the fossa would bare their teeth at them.

At first it seemed like Clover had given up on fighting off the fossa, but then suddenly she jumped into action, surprising the predators. She punched one in the face and another in the stomach until a large gap opened up.

"Come on!" she called to her friends, and she took off, jumping into the nearest tree. Maurice was frozen with fear, but a push behind him snapped him out of it. He chased after Clover, looking over his shoulder just in time to see fossa blocking off the escape route. Lilian and Weasel were trapped once more.

From up in a tree, Maurice watched the fossa talk among themselves. They seemed to be deciding what to do, but Maurice was too far away to hear. Finally they set out again. Maurice's instincts told him to run after his friends and try to save them, but he knew he'd only get caught again.

The branch bounced as Clover joined him. "You okay?" she asked.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Thanks to Weasel. I owe him my life."

"You can repay him by rescuing him."

Suddenly determined, Maurice nodded and followed Clover through the trees, toward the predators' side of the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

"Slaves!" the king exclaimed, widening his eyes in shock. This was so weird. Instead of eating them, the fossa were gathering the lemurs together to make them their slaves. It was the fossa named Mac's idea to use Patch to get close to Julien and when they weren't expecting it, they launched their plan to take over the kingdom.

Maurice's voice echoed in his head. _Fossa eat. Fossa sleep. Fossa does not plan._

 _You were wrong about that, Momo,_ he thought, frowning. "So I failed my subjects by welcoming my brother back," Julien murmured.

Emily put her hand on his shoulder. "You were excited to see your brother alive; it's not your fault. It's _his_." She shot a glare at Patch.

"I'm sorry." Patch frowned. "You've been nicer to me than most of these fossa, besides Mac up until now. But they raised me. My loyalty lies with them."

"They stole you!" Julien blurted out, and Patch blinked. "When you were a little lemur," the king explained," I was teaching you how to dance, but we were too close to fossa territory. They found us and—"

"And they chased us back to the kingdom," Patch cut in suddenly, his eyes shining with lost memory. "They chased us up a tree, and I lost my balance and landed right in the jaws of… Mac." Anger flashed in Patch's gaze. "He told me that he found me, that my family abandoned me and he was all I had. He never mentioned I also had a brother."

"What did you expect?" Emily snorted. "He is a fossa, after all."

"But I thought I could trust him…"

Julien opened his muzzle, but before he could speak, a yowl split through the air, and the fossa that stayed behind got to their feet. Mac stood on the cliff above, more of his patrol huddling close to him, surrounding all of the lemur kingdom so they didn't run off. Not all of the kingdom, Julien noticed.

Where were Maurice and Clover?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Come on!" the orange lemur urged Maurice, staring back at him impatiently as he climbed over a fallen tree. He flopped down on the other side, panting.

"Can we slow down?" he begged.

"No!" Clover insisted. "Our friends are in trouble. We need to go _faster_!"

 _I don't think I can,_ the aye-aye responded to her in his head, and, as if she heard him, she encouraged him. "You can do it. You do want to save King Julien, don't you?"

He stared at her without actually seeing her. He was remembering the first time he laid eyes on the ringtail king right after he was born. Since then they've been the best of buddies and have done everything together. Maurice didn't want to live without him, and he still owed Weasel for saving his life.

"Okay, come on then." Maurice hurried away with Clover right behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With his head held high, Mac jumped down the rocks. His patrol followed him, pushing along the lemurs who stared in horror at the fossa. Mac padded over to Patch. "I hope there were no problems while we were gone," he rumbled, but before Patch could answer, he turned to Simon.

"No problems," the fossa replied.

"Well, Patch was talking to the king," Adain put in. "But nothing to worry about. They were just remembering their time together. Stupid lemurs," he muttered.

"Relax, Adain," said Mac. "Our plan worked perfectly. Well, two lemurs escaped, but we can get them back later."

"But didn't you say we need all the lemurs?" Damon questioned.

"I did, and we will get all of them," Mac responded calmly.

"How?" Damon sounded doubtful. "They could be anywhere on the island by now!"

Mac shook his head. "No, they are on their way here right now."

"How do you know?" Adain growled.

"We have their friends. Of course they are heading this way, to rescue them. And when they get here, we can grab them and put them with the others." He gestured with his tail toward a group of fossa that was forcing lemurs in cages made out of bamboo and leaves. "Don't forget the king and these two!" Mac called out to them.

The fossa immediately dropped what they were doing and hurried over to herd Julien, Emily, and Mort into a cage. Patch watched them, suddenly wishing he could help them. After the conversation he had with his brother, he felt unsure about the fossa and even felt terrible for taking part in kidnapping all the lemurs to turn them into the fossa slaves.

_I wish there was something I could do to help…_

"You forgot one." Mac's voice broke into Patch's thought, and he turned to his former friend in confusion. Who did they forget? All the lemurs were in cages. Then it dawned on him.

_He means me!_

Suddenly he noticed all the fossa stalking toward him. Patch backed up, but ran into something soft. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a fossa baring his teeth at him. Before it could catch him, Patch dropped to his belly and rolled out of its reach. Jumping back to his feet, he noticed more fossa running toward him.

Patch turned and made a break for the cliff. He climbed it in a hurry and, with one final push, was standing, panting, on the top. But he had no time to catch his breath. The fossa were climbing up after him. He took off in a random direction, going so fast that everything around him was a blur. Suddenly he hit something and fell back onto his rear.

Groaning and rubbing his pounding head, he looked up to find another lemur sitting in front of him.

_Maurice!_

Another lemur joined him. _Clover._ She helped him to his feet before turning to Patch. "Patch?" she questioned. "What are you doing out here? We thought the fossa kidnapped everyone."

"Well… not exactly." Right now wasn't the time to come clean about everything. “We need to get away from here! The fossa is after me!"

Instantly Clover jumped into action. "Come on!" But she was going the wrong way. She was going _toward_ the fossa!

"What is she doing?" Patch glanced at Maurice.

"We're going to save our friends," the aye-aye responded.

_Mac was right…_

"Is Julien okay?"

Maurice's voice startled Patch. "Um… yeah, he's fine. For now," he added darkly.

"We need to hurry!" Maurice took off after Clover.

Every instinct inside him was telling Patch to run the other way, far away from the fossa. He was a fool to ever think he was one of them. But he had wanted to help his brother, and maybe he can do that by going with Maurice and Clover. He just didn't see what three lemurs can do against a whole pack of fossa.

Reluctantly, he followed them. They had stopped and were standing still. "Did you hear that?" Clover murmured.

"Is it the fossa?" Maurice whispered back.

"I don't think so…" Clover crept closer, and Patch hardly dared to breathe. A bush was rustling. If it was a fossa they wouldn't be hiding, so what was it?

As Clover inched closer, fists ready to punch, something stood up. Patch widened his eyes. Was that a lemur? It looked like one, but larger and with muscles.

Clover squealed with delight. "Sage!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

The mountain lemur stepped out of the bush. "Greetings, Clover," he said to her. Then he turned to the aye-aye. "Greetings, Maurice." He glanced at Patch. "Greetings, lemur I don't know."

"My name is..." Patch hesitated, about to call himself Elliot. "I'm Patch," he finally said.

Maurice smiled. "Brother to the king," he announced cheerfully despite the dangers the kingdom was in. Patch glanced at him guilty.

 _He wouldn't introduce me so happily if he knew the truth about me,_ Patch thought miserably.

"Sage, I'm glad you're here," Clover said to him in a hurry. "We need your help!"

"Don't we all need help in this crazy world?" Sage responded with a faraway look in his eyes. "Sometimes we need help asking for help. Sometimes help comes in on the wing—"

"Sage," the orange lemur tried to interrupt, but the mountain lemur continued, talking complete nonsense about the word help and how it comes in on the wing of a bird sometimes. Patch shared a confused look with Maurice.

"Sage!" Clover shouted, snapping him out of it. "The Kingdom is in trouble! The fossa took everyone, including King Julien, and now we need to rescue them! Will you help us?"

Sage opened his mouth to answer, but his voice was replaced by a deep- throated growl. Patch listened, recognizing Sander's snarl. "Where did he go?" the fossa grumbled.

"They are looking for me," Patch whispered to the others. "We need to hide. And quick!"

"To the trees!" Maurice responded, and he and everyone else climbed the nearest tree, even Clover, who seemed eager to fight but still had enough sense to know when the odds were against her. Nobody dared breathed as they watched the fossa stalk below them. Suddenly Patch remembered hiding in a tree with his brother when he was a baby. He had lost his balance and fell right in the paws of the fossa, who took him and raised him to do evil.

Anger pulsed through him. All his life he thought Mac was his friend and that the fossa was all he had. He strongly believed that he was one of them. But it was all just a huge lie. They had been using him to get to his brother and the lemur Kingdom.

Suddenly Sander froze and sniffed deeply. Patch's heart started beating faster. The fossa looked up, gaze locking with the ringtail’s. Then he let out a howl that summoned the rest of his patrol. They stood around the tree, growling up at the lemurs and trying desperately to reach them.

"What do we do?" Patch stared at the others, hoping one of them had a plan. It was difficult for a lemur to fight off one fossa, let alone a whole pack of them, and even with Sage here they were still horribly outnumbered. Sage may be huge with muscles, but Patch knew he couldn't possibly beat all the fossa even with the others' help.

Clover was glancing around. “Climb higher,” she said as she pushed herself upwards. The others followed her.

Sander circled the tree, lashing his tail. Suddenly Patch remembered something. “He can't reach us if we stay up here,” he told them.

“What makes you think that?” Clover demanded.

“Look.” Patch pointed at Sander. “His tail is too short, which means he can't balance well. We'd probably be in danger if we had stayed low,” he added hesitantly,” but he won't risk falling from this height.”

The others realized this made sense, but then Maurice said,” But what about them?” He pointed to the rest of the patrol who were crouching low to jump onto the nearest branch.

Patch gulped. He forgot about them.

Before they could climb the tree, Sander blocked their way. “I don't think so,” he growled.

They looked at him, surprise. “But Sander,” one of them objected,” Mac wants these lemurs.”

“Nobody is stealing my credit,” Sander insisted. “I'll be the one who gets them and brings them to Mac.”

“But Sander—” another fossa tried to say, but Sander growled at them.

“Enough! You can't stay up there forever!” he scowled up at the lemurs. He snapped around and stalked away. His patrol hesitated for a moment or two, then reluctantly followed him.

Patch watched them go, frowning. Sander was never nice to him, but Mac always stepped in before things turned nasty. But now Mac sent Sander after him. He was utterly alone. He doubted, if they got through this, that his brother would welcome him back after what he did to him.

He shook his head. Thinking about all that depressed him, and he had more important things to worry about at the moment, like not being captured by the fossa and turned into a slave. “What now?” he asked.

At first nobody answered him. Maurice and Sage shared an uncertain glance, while Clover looked around. "We keep to the trees," she finally decided.

"But what about when we get closer to fossa territory?" Maurice questioned. "There's hardly any trees around there. We'd have to walk the rest of the way, and if they see us we are goners!"

"We can figure that out later," Clover replied, and she jumped into the next tree. Maurice and Sage followed her. For a moment Patch stayed behind.

"Should I tell them?" he muttered to himself. "No," he decided. "If they knew I was just with the fossa not long ago, they'd chase me off and then I couldn't help my brother." Confident that he was doing the right thing by keeping his betrayal a secret, he followed the other lemurs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

King Julien refused to look or talk to anyone. He was wrapped up in his own self misery. _I should never have trusted him,_ he thought, sighing deeply, which drew the attention of the female lemur sitting beside him.

"You can't keep blaming yourself for Patch's betrayal," Emily told him, but still he said nothing, and she also sighed.

"He'll come around," he heard someone whisper to her.

Nearby the fossa named Mac was having a meeting with five or six other fossa. They spoke in quiet voices, but Julien strained to listen.

"Do you think Sander will be able to catch Elliot?" one of them questioned.

"Sander is powerful and skilled at tracking," Mac answered. "I'm sure he'll find him." Despite his words, the tip of his tail was twitching as if he didn't believe himself.

Another fossa opened his mouth, but before it could get a word out, a howl sounded above. Fossa and lemurs turned to see Sander's patrol returning. They hopped down the cliffs and padded over to Mac, who waited for them.

"Well?" he pressed as Sander came to a halt in front of him. "Did you find him?"

"We found him," Sander replied, and cheers from the fossa broke out, while dread washed over Julien. Oh no! "But," the fossa went on, silencing the noise with a flick of his tail. "We couldn't reach him."

"Awww," the fossa groaned in unison.

"However," Sander continued, raising his voice. "We also found the missing lemurs, and you were right, Mac. They seemed to be heading this way to save their friends. All we have to do is wait and jump them when they get here. Then we'd have every single lemur!"

Alarm shot through Julien. _I can't believe this is happening again! My Kingdom... turned into prisoners and slaves once more... What kind of king am I?_

"Simon!"

The fossa started at Mac's call and ran over to him. "It's time."

Simon nodded and dashed off, disappearing over the cliff. Julien watched him go, wondering where he was going, but he was distracted from Simon when his gaze landed on his subjects. They were all looking miserable. He turned to Emily, frowning when he saw that she was on the edge of crying. He was about to reach out to her and pull her into a hug, but Mac started calling to his pack.

"Adain, Soren, Damon, Eric, Liam!"

The five fossa circled around Mac, waiting for orders. "Go to the top of the cliff," Mac told them. "Hide and wait for the lemurs to appear. Then capture them and bring them down here with the rest of them. Got it?"

They all nodded and hurriedly got into position.

Mac turned to the cages and padded over. He opened the door, growling when a couple of lemurs tried making a run for it. They retreated in fear. Then Mac narrowed his eyes at King Julien. "You, follow me."

Julien stood up, breathing in and out to calm himself. Before he even took a step toward the open door, he was yanked back down. Surprised, he turned to Emily. "You can't follow him," she said, fear in her eyes. "What if he—" She didn't finish her sentence, but Julien knew what she was going to say.

 _What if he kills me?_ the king thought. He was scared, but as king he needed to do whatever he had to so that his subjects wouldn't get hurt. He'd follow Mac and try to negotiate with him. Maybe there's a way of saving his kingdom even if he can't save himself. "I'll be fine," he murmured to Emily, hoping she didn't notice that he didn't believe that.

He squeezed her hand affectionately and then let go. He walked out of the cage and blinked up at Mac, who turned around with an ill-tempered grunt, flicking his tail. Realizing it was a signal for Julien to follow him, he hurried after him, keeping pace with him as they climbed the cliff. After awhile Julien finally decided to break the silence. "So," he started, but Mac shot him a glare and Julien sighed, keeping quiet again.

They entered the jungle and walked for a long time until finally Mac stopped. "Okay, stay here," he growled at Julien, and then stalked away.

Julien widened his eyes. Did Mac really just leave him alone? He took a few steps toward freedom but froze. Suddenly he felt like he was being watched. Could it just be Mac? "H-Hello?" he called out.

"Hello," a voice answered. A familiar voice. Julien was trying to figure out where he's heard that voice before when he noticed someone running by him. He turned to see who was there. Nothing. When he turned back around, he came face to face with someone he hasn't seen in such a long time.

He gasped. "Karl!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

A smirk on his face, Karl started clapping. Julien just stared at him, dumbfounded. When did he come into all this? Was he working with the fossa? Julien still didn't understand what Karl had against him, but he did know that the fanaloka didn't like him for some reason.

"Oh, Julien, Julien-Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Excuse me. I meant _King_ Julien. Except you're not a king anymore."

He snapped his fingers and Julien felt tiny legs going up his spine. He shivered and turned to see the hissing cockroach on his shoulder. Screaming, he tried knocking it off, but the little creature was faster. It jumped in the air to avoid Julien's swinging hands and the next thing the ringtail knew it had his crown. It hopped off him and hurried over to Karl, climbing on his shoulder. Instead of freaking out like Julien did, Karl patted the purring roach.

"Thank you, Chauncey." Karl took the crown from the little creature. "Now Julien," he said, turning back to the stunned lemur. "Do you now see what I'm hoping to accomplish?"

"No," Julien admitted.

Karl blinked at him, then smiled. "Oh, I see what's going on here. You know how much I love bragging about my schemes. You're too kind, Julien. _Too_ kind."

He snapped his fingers again and suddenly fossa stalked out of the bushes, circling Julien and cutting off any route to freedom. Gulping, Julien turned back to Karl.

"W-What are you going to do to me?" the king stammered, shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm not going to kill you if that's what you're thinking. Not yet at least," Karl told him, spinning Julien's crown on his finger. "But our game of who's superior is finally over— and guess what, I win!" He laughed menacingly.

Frantically, Julien glanced around. How was he supposed to get out of this one?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leaving the trees behind them, Patch, Clover, Maurice, and Sage tracked their way through fossa territory. They were careful not to make a sound. When they would spot a fossa in the distance stalking, they'd make for the nearest bush and hide there until the coast was clear.

"I can't believe all this is happening," Maurice finally broke the silence. "I thought after we took our kingdom back from the mountain lemurs, we wouldn't have anything else to worry about." He finished with a deep sigh.

Clover glanced at him. "But with the fossa, we should always be wary," she reminded him.

"She's right," Sage chipped in from where he stood beside Patch, who listened to their conversation guilty. "My brother was just looking for power," the mountain lemur continued," but the fossa are predators. They hunt lemurs, which is what we are."

"For once Sage is talking sense," Clover said. "But this time the fossa aren't looking for a snack. They are up to something, and we are the only lemurs left to find out what that something is." Determination burned in her eyes, and Sage and Maurice agreed with her.

Patch couldn't take it anymore. He sighed and murmured," Guys." They turned to him. "You're right; the fossa are up to something."

Maurice stopped walking and so did everyone else. "How do you know that?" the aye-aye responded.

Not answering his question, Patch said," They want lemur slaves, and they have a special plan for my brother." He frowned, picturing the fanaloka who came to Mac one day. The memory of their discussion echoed in his head now.

"You have a special one among you," the stranger named Karl had declared, pointing toward Patch who at the time had no idea what he meant.

Mac had looked impatient. "What are you rambling about, cousin? You've never seen a lemur living among fossa before?"

"No," Karl answered. "Which is why he's special. That and… something else." He turned to Patch for a moment before looking back at Mac. "Can we take this conversation somewhere private?"

Mac hesitated, then nodded and beckoned Karl to follow him. Patch had stayed behind, but when Mac had come back was the first time he had announced his plan so Patch knew Karl had to be behind it. Mac never told anyone what he had in store for King Julien, only that he was not to be harmed and he was to be taken away as soon as they achieved their plan.

Patch was snapped back to the present by Clover, who shook him. "What are they going to do to the king?" she demanded.

"I-I don't know," Patch stammered, stepping back.

"How do you know they want us as slaves?" Maurice asked him.

Patch swallowed nervously. "Well… you see…" He was interrupted by growling and suddenly five fossa stalked from behind rocks, circling the lemurs and snarling at them.

Maurice gasped and stumbled away from the snapping jaws of a fossa, bumping into Patch. Patch glanced around, recognizing the five fossa from his time spent with them. They were the strongest but not the brightest of the pack. Perhaps they could confuse them long enough to escape.

He was about to whisper his plan to the others when the patrol launched at them, and Patch prepared himself for flesh ripping teeth to tear at his fur. But instead he found himself being lifted up by his scruff. He blinked and opened his eyes to see his friends also being carried by the fossa. Two of them had to restrain Sage, who didn't even try to fight back. Clover on the other hand was wiggling in the jaws of a fossa, grunting in anger.

 _So much for my plan,_ Patch thought as the fossa started climbing down the rocks with the lemurs. Once back in the pack's camp, they were let go, but there was nowhere to run. Fossa were everywhere. Patch glanced around, frowning. Where was his brother?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I was in my lair one day," Karl explained while Julien stood there and listened. "I was thinking to myself 'How do I beat Julien?'. Then it came to me. I realized that I don't need to kill you in order to destroy you."

Julien blinked. "You don't?"

Karl shook his head. "No. As I was thinking, I realized that the worst possible thing I can do to you is take away your kingdom, which I have successfully done. I finally won!" He laughed again, and his hissing cockroach let out a noise that sounded like laughter. The fossa named Mac appeared beside Karl, and even he started laughing.

The ringtail king thought quickly. "You can have me," he blurted out. "Just let everyone else go. Please. They've done nothing to you." He took a deep breath before letting it out. "I rather lose my kingdom, than my friends."

"That's surprisingly noble of you, Julien," the fanaloka said. "But that isn't how this is going to go. You're not negotiating your way out of this."

Julien bit hard on his bottom lip, the taste of blood filling his mouth. What was Karl going to do to him now that he took everything he cared about? And he wasn't talking about his kingdom. Will he ever see his friends again?

"Let's go," Karl said, knocking Julien out of his thoughts, and fossa started pushing him forward, following Karl and Mac, and Julien had no choice but to walk on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

In the back of the cage, Mort stared at nothing. His ears twitched as he listened to his friends' conversation. They were talking about King Julien.

"Where do you think they took him?" Lilian asked, her voice low and frightened.

"There's no telling," Weasel murmured darkly. "And all we can do is hope he's still alive…"

Mort glanced up, wondering if Emily was going to say anything, but she remained silent. Her eyes were sad and she stared at the ground. Mort hated the attention Julien showed her, but right now he felt sorry for her. Clearly she was suffering just as much as he was. What have they done to their beloved king?

Lilian and Weasel continued their conversation, but Mort's thoughts started wondering and soon he couldn't understand any words through the fog in his mind. Both him and Emily were dazed from sadness as the others spoke from right beside them.

A loud commotion brought Mort back, and he looked up, shocked to see the rest of his friends, including Sage, being drugged back to the camp by fossa. His eyes narrowed when he saw Patch among them. Fur twitching with anger, he wished the bars of the cage wasn't keeping him from launching himself at the traitor.

Patch glanced around nervously. There was no sign of his brother. _Where did Mac take him?_ he wondered.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he was pushed towards the cages full of lemurs. He glanced over his shoulder at the fossa, watching as he opened the door of the cage and throwing Patch inside, along with the rest of his friends. Sage was so big that he had to get his own cage next to the one Patch, Maurice, and Clover was in.

Eyes burning into him made Patch turn. Mort was glaring at him from his cage. Pure hatred blazed in his gaze and Patch knew why. He betrayed his own brother and his home just because he was foolish enough to believe Mac saw him as one of them.

 _I should have known better,_ Patch thought, turning away from Mort. How could a lemur be a fossa?

"Maurice? Clover? What are you doing here?"

Patch looked up at the beautiful ringtail. He understood why Julien liked her so much. She was caring and had the sweetest voice. And she was glorious. He never noticed before because he had been so focused on tricking his brother into the paws of the fossa. But now…

 _No!_ Patch thought, shaking his head. _You already helped bring an end to your brother's kingdom. Don't try to steal the lemur he likes too!_

"And what are you doing with him?"

Patch turned to Weasel, gulping. _Uh oh…_

"What do you mean?" Maurice glanced at Patch.

"Go on." Weasel glared at him. "Tell them who you really are… traitor!" The black and orange lemur pointed accusingly at him.

"Traitor?" Maurice looked at Weasel before turning to Patch. "What does he mean?" he asked the king's brother.

Clover narrowed her eyes. "I should have known." She took a step toward Patch, clenching her hands into fists. Maurice stepped in front of her.

"No, it has to be some mistake," he insisted. Maurice's mind was racing. _Please, it can't be true! He's the king's brother! He can't be a traitor!_

An exhale made him turn around. "It's true," Patch said. "I was working with the fossa and I tricked you all to trust me just so the fossa can invade and kidnap you all."

Maurice's blood turned cold. _N-No…_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The moon was rising in the sky. Karl and the fossa Mac kept walking, while the fossa behind them nudged Julien on. The king's feet were starting to hurt from all the walking and several times he asked if they could rest, but Karl urged him on. Now he was glad to see that they were slowing down.

Karl and Mac stopped up ahead, and Julien, panting, halted beside them. He glanced around at the dark jungle. He knew every inch of his kingdom, but this place was way outside his kingdom. The trees were tall here and the plants were overgrown. The lemurs kept their kingdom neat and tidy, but nobody has taken care of this place in probably forever.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Your new home," Karl answered him, pushing him deeper into the forbidden jungle. "Here you are separated from your friends and family, and you are the king of nobody. You shall stay here for the rest of your life." He ended with a maniacal laughter.

Julien stared at him. Where did it all go wrong? _When I let Patch into my kingdom,_ he realized, and sudden anger toward his brother boiled up in him. He should never have trusted him. _I should have kicked him out when my friends told me to._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

Patch was sitting in the back of the cage, drowning in guilt and self pity as the others discussed his fate. What were they going to do to him? He stiffened when Weasel suggested they throw him out of the cage and let the fossa deal with him.

"For some reason the fossa aren't eating us," Lilian pointed out. "So I don't think they'd make an exception for someone who was working with them."

 _Actually,_ Patch thought, glancing around at the fossa guarding the lemurs. _I think most of them would very much enjoy eating me…_ He remembered how everyone but Mac made him feel like an outsider. Now even Mac told him that he didn't belong with the fossa.

"Why are we talking about this now?" Emily gazed at Weasel and Lilian before turning to look at Clover and Maurice. "We have more important things to worry about." She lowered her voice. "Like how we are going to escape from here to find Julien and rescue him."

"Emily's right," Maurice decided. "We can discuss what's to be done with Patch once we get our king back."

Weasel snorted. "I'm telling you there's no point. Fossa took him into the jungle and he's been gone for a long time. Our king is dead."

"Don't say that!"

Everyone turned to Mort, who stood at the back of the second cage. His eyes blazed with anger as he glared at Weasel. Emily pushed past Weasel and Lilian until she was standing in front of Mort. She reached out and patted his head.

"It's okay," she soothed. "I'm sure he's still alive and we will find him."

Mort stared at her, taken aback. He disliked her because of the attention his king showed her, and he was sure everyone, including her, knew it. Yet here she was comforting him. For the first time ever his anger toward her melted away and he smiled up at her. Then he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Thank you," he whispered.

She smiled as well and patted his head again.

Patch watched the heartwarming moment in silence. Then he cleared his throat and everyone turned to him. "I have a plan to escape," he murmured quietly to them. "But I need all of your help— especially you, Mort."

"No way!" Mort's anger came back, aimed at Patch. "I'm not listening to anything you say!" He hugged tighter on Emily's leg.

"I'm with Mort," Weasel announced, glaring at Patch. "Why should we trust you?"

"Yeah!" Clover snapped around at the male ringtail. "You let us continue to believe you were innocent. You didn't tell us that you were working for the fossa!"

"I was going to," Patch defended himself," when the fossa jumped us."

"Yeah, right," Clover snorted.

Maurice and Emily shared a glance. "Maybe we should listen to him," Maurice said.

"Yeah," Emily agreed. "We have no other option, and remember, he is the king's brother. Julien… isn't here at the moment." She was determined not to say what everyone was thinking, but Julien has been gone for a long time. Could he really still be alive? "So while he is gone," Emily went on," Patch is technically in charge."

Weasel snorted. "He's not my king!"

"Mine either!" Clover declared, and Lilian quietly murmured an agreement while Mort just glared at Patch.

"Whoa, I don't want to be king," Patch insisted. "I didn't mean to take charge or anything, but I have a plan, and nobody else was coming up with one. I'm sorry if I stepped on any toes." With a heavy sigh, Patch sat down, facing away from everyone.

Emily frowned. "We should at least listen to his plan," she whispered.

"Why?" Weasel growled. "He's a traitor!"

"But unless you have a plan," Maurice snapped at him," he is our only option, and we should listen to him."

Clover and Weasel stared at each other for several moments before sighing. "Fine," the orange lemur muttered as Weasel huffed and flopped down on his rear.

Hope flared up in Emily. "Okay, Patch, tell us your plan."

Patch looked up, eyes shining. "Okay, come closer." He lowered his voice so the fossa couldn't hear as he told the others his plan.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Midnight came and went as Julien struggled through the jungle. He still had no idea where he was, but he hoped eventually he'd stumble across his kingdom or at least some part of the island he recognized.

Finally he gave up and sat down where he was. He stared up at the sky, convinced he could see the moon moving. Was that his life ticking by?

Suddenly rustling startled him. He jumped to his feet and jerked in all distances, but he didn't see anything. "H-Hello?" he called out.

No reply.

"Hel-" He broke off when something appeared right in front of him. He screamed and jumped back. Then he took a better look at the chameleon. "Masikura?"

"Hello, Your Majesty," she said nonchalantly.

"Where have you been?" Julien demanded, stomping his foot. "My kingdom—“

"—is in grave danger," she finished his sentence. "Your brother will return to you, but do not trust him. He's working for the fossa."

"Now you tell me!" Julien shouted. "Look around! It's too late for warnings, Masikura. I did trust my brother and now Karl has trapped me out here with no way of returning to save everyone because I don't know where I am!"

"Oh." Masikura was silent for a moment. "Okay, bye." She vanished before his eyes.

"Wait! Wait!" Julien yelled, running around. "Wait!" He stopped dead when she appeared in front of him again.

"What?" she asked.

"How did you get here?" he demanded.

"I know every inch of this island."

"I thought I knew every inch of my kingdom."

"But this is not your kingdom," she reminded him.

Julien sighed. "Yeah…"

"Goodbye." She vanished again only to reappear after he called to her again.

"Can you show me the way home?" he begged.

She scratched her chin as if in thought. "Okay. But," she added," we aren't going home." Before he could ask where they were going, she once again vanished and reappeared farther away. "Come on, Your Majesty!"

Feeling hopeful for the first time since he found out his brother was a traitor, he ran after the chameleon, wondering where she was taking him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I can't believe I'm doing this for the traitor," Mort muttered angrily. Taking a deep breath, he called out to the nearest fossa, who turned to him. "Hey, cat-face, you want some?" He wiggled his tail and slapped his plump bottom.

At first the fossa didn't seem tempted, then he came over. "I'm sure Mac won't miss one lemur," he said as he licked his lips hungrily.

For a moment, Mort regretted agreeing to go along with Patch's plan. Then he remembered the rest. He wiggled his bottom once more and then ran to the front of the cage, ducking behind Emily. The fossa's hunting instincts took over and he gave chase, crashing into the cage. His head got stuck between the bars.

Panic shined in his eyes as he struggled to get free. Finally he was able to get his head unstuck, stumbling backwards, but the impact left a hole in the cage big enough for the lemurs to slip through.

The first part of the plan worked. Now it was time for the second part. Emily ran to the other cage where the rest of their friends were trapped, and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"Hey!"

Mort turned around to see Sander staring at them. "How did you get out?" he demanded.

"Get away from here!" Patch called to them. "Don't worry about us. Find Julien and get to safety!"

For a moment Emily seemed hesitant, then when fossa came running toward them, she turned to Mort, Weasel, and Lilian. "Come on!"

All four of them ran together, dodging fossa until they were out of the cliff. But still they weren't safe; fossa were still after them. They ran and ran, finally getting to the trees, and they climbed the highest tree and started swinging from branch to branch. Eventually the sound of the fossa faded into the jungle, and at last they decided to stop to catch their breaths.

"What now?" Weasel panted.

For several moments nobody answered him. Then Emily said," We find Julien and then return here to recuse the rest of our friends."

The others agreed and off they went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

Panting, the king stopped to catch his breath. He looked up, but the chameleon was gone. "Wait! Masikura? Masikura!" He was breathing heavily. "Where did she go?"

Suddenly she appeared in front of him, startling him. "Hurry up, Your Majesty! We are almost there!"

"Where?" Julien panted.

"No time to answer. Come on!" She vanished again, reappearing farther down the trail.

Julien sighed and ran after her. He was blinded by exhaustion that he didn't see anyone in front of him until he ran head-on into them. He stumbled backwards, his head pounding.

_What was that?_

He looked up and gasped. "Emily!" The pretty lemur was sitting on the ground, knocked over by the king. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" He stretched out his hand to help her up.

She stared up at him with huge eyes. "J-Juli- King Julien, is that really you?"

Suddenly Julien remembered that he was not wearing his crown because Karl had taken it, but Emily wasn't like the rest of his kingdom. She can recognize him even without his crown.

"Yes, it's me," he said, still holding out his hand for her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," she responded. Three more lemurs appeared behind her. They stared at him in astonishment as if they couldn't believe he was really there. Then there was a loud squeal and Mort ran toward him, wrapping himself around the king's feet and kissing his toes.

Julien sighed, but still smiled. He couldn't lie to himself. He even missed the annoying mouse lemur, that's how lonely and scared he was. He bent over and picked him up, hugging him. Mort hugged him back, but after a moment, Julien dropped him and shooed him away. Then he turned to Emily. She was already prepared for a hug, and Weasel and Lilian joined in.

"We thought you were dead," Weasel admitted after the hug.

"They thought you were dead," Emily put in, pointing at Weasel and Lilian, who both shifted their feet nervously. "Mort and I kept the hope alive. Right, Mort?"

Mort nodded eagerly, standing close beside Julien.

"Really?" Julien looked at her with sad eyes. “Even I thought I was dead. When Karl left me in the middle of nowhere, I didn't know what to do."

"Wait," Weasel said, lifting his hand up. "Did you say Karl?"

Julien nodded. "He's behind all this. He got together with the fossa and talked them into kidnapping everyone, and he took my crown and left me kingdomless. He said he finally won, but I don't know what he got against me. I did nothing to him! It just doesn't make any sense…"

Suddenly Julien noticed something. "Wait, where's Momo?"

Emily, Weasel, and Lilian all shared an uncertain look, and Julien got a bad feeling.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well?" Sander demanded as the fossa came trotting back to camp with their heads down. "Did you get them? I hope no sign of them means that you killed and ate them," he growled.

The fossa crouched low and avoided Sander's gaze. The second in command growled again and turned his back on them. As he passed the cages, he heard Patch whisper," They got away."

Sander snapped around and snarled at his former campmate. "You were behind this."

"Um... perhaps..." he said sheepishly.

Sander growled and lunged at him through the bars of the cage. Pain struck him and he fell to the ground. _That was smart,_ he scolded himself.

In the cage, Patch suddenly had an idea. "Hey, cat-face!" he yowled, and Sander looked up, narrowing his eyes.

He threw himself at the cage again. Joy ran through Patch when he saw the hole Sander had made in the bars of the cage was getting bigger. He continued to taunt the fossa, making him very angry. Suddenly he burst into the cage, snapping the bars and sending the lemurs inside flying through the air. They all landed some distances away from Sander, who was snapping his jaws all around, but he stopped when he realized he was eating bamboo and leaves.

His eyes flashed as they landed on Patch. "Come back here!" he growled, running toward them. Patch and Maurice took off to get out of the camp, while Clover went farther in.

"Clover!" Maurice called. "What are you doing?"

"Saving Sage!" She dodged Sander's snapping jaws and landed in front of Sage's cage. "Come on, Sage! Let me—" She had started tugging at the bamboo, but suddenly Sage stood up and brought the roof off of the cage. He climbed out and put the roof back on as he stood there next to Clover. "Um… okay. That works," she stammered, clearly not expecting that.

"Come on, guys!" Maurice called to them between a sea of hungry fossa.

Clover and Sage shared a glance before jumping in, dodging fossa and punching the ones who they couldn't dodge. Finally they made it to Maurice and Patch, and they took off, out running the fossa.

Sander was about to chase after them when a menacing growl sounded behind him. "What is happening here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

A flick of gray and the lemur was gone. Returning back to camp, Mac was just able to see the tail disappearing over the rocks. Anger burned in him.

“What is happening here?” he demanded.

Sander snapped around. “Mac!” he gasped, slowly walking over to him. “W-What are you doing back so soon?”

“We finished early,” Mac snarled, glaring at his second-in-command before turning his glare on the ruined cages. _Ha!_ he mockingly thought. _Second-in-command; what a joke!_ He was starting to question his decision.

Sander hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Mac. T-They tricked us…”

“A bunch of lemurs… tricked you?” Mac snorted disbelievingly.

“It’s true!” Sander insisted. “They are smarter than they let on!” His eyes narrowed as he turned to glare at the remaining lemurs. Mac noticed with rising frustration that all the important ones escaped.

 _At least the king is taking care of,_ the lead fossa thought. But still, they had to get the others back as soon as possible before their plans were threatened anymore. Karl promised him that they could have the rest of the lemurs only if they helped him, which they’ve successfully done by not killing Julien, but by taking him far away and imprisoning his subjects. But now, thanks to Sander, their perfect plan was coming apart. It was unlikely but still possible that the runaway lemurs could very much find their king stumbling through the jungle.

“You need to find them.” When Sander didn’t move, Mac opened his mouth and snapped his jaws closed an inch or two away from Sander’s muzzle. “Now!”

Sander jumped back, turned, and started running after the long gone lemurs. As he paused to gather a group of his campmates, Mac growled at him,” You better catch them and bring them back here or you can kiss your position as my second-in-command goodbye!”

Sander gulped and hurried off, his patrol on his heels. Mac watched them go, his tail flicking to and fro angrily.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Where is Maurice?” the king repeated, feeling his heart beat faster with fear the longer his friends hesitate. He noticed Lilian whispering something to Weasel, but it was too quiet and he didn’t hear what she said. Mort lowered his gaze, and Emily frowned at Julien.

“Well? Is anyone going to speak?” he demanded.

Suddenly Masikura appeared beside him, hanging from a tree branch by her tail. She looked at the others curiously, as if for once she didn’t have an answer to the king’s question but she wanted to know. Julien was kinda glad she didn’t already know because she’d use riddles to disclose the aye-aye’s location, and right now Julien didn’t feel like figuring out a difficult riddle to find his friend. He was too worried. He just wanted to know where Maurice was and if he was okay.

“Well, you see, Your Majesty,” Emily started but broke off and glanced at Lilian.

“We… um…” Lilian turned to Weasel.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Mort interrupted the black and orange lemur. “We left him behind!” he blurted out.

Widening his eyes, Julien stared down at the little mouse lemur. “What!” he exclaimed.

“Y-You don’t understand, Your Highness,” Emily stammered. “We had no choice! The fossa would have captured us again if we had stayed!”

Weasel nodded. “But now we can regroup and come up with a plan, and then return for him and the rest of them. They are still our friends and family.” His voice cracked on the word ‘family’, and Julien was reminded that the fossa still had Elizabeth. Weasel may not be very fond of her because she was a bully to everyone, but she was still his sister no matter what.

Julien forced himself to relax. “Yeah, okay. We can recuse him later.” Weasel was right. If they rushed in, they might get themselves caught again or worse, killed.

“But what do we do until then?” Lilian asked, and everyone, including Masikura, turned to the ring tailed king expectantly. Julien realized that as their king, he had to take charge so nobody does anything foolish.

“We-We can return to the kingdom,” Julien decided. “I know nobody will be there,” he went on when Weasel opened his mouth, guessing what he was going to say. “But we can go back to the plane and come up with a plan to rescue the rest of my people— I mean, our friends.”

They nodded, agreeing with him and then they followed him through the jungle. Masikura disappeared, probably going to meet them on the plane. Julien lifted his gaze overhead to the sky, noticing that the horizon was turning an orange color as the sun made its first appearance of the day. It’s hard to believe that all this happened in a day: His brother returning to him, fossa kidnapping his subjects, him being exiled by Karl, managing to find his way back while his closest friends— well most— escape the fossa. That thought brought back the memory of Maurice, still a prisoner to the fossa.

Still looking up, he sent a silent prayer to the Gods who watched over the lemurs of Madagascar. _Great spirits, please watch over Momo and return him to me safely._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun made its journey across the sky as Maurice, Clover, Sage, and Patch ran through the jungle. They didn’t dare stop until they were far from fossa territory. Finally they skidded to a halt, panting.

“We-We made it.” Maurice turned to the others. “I didn’t think we would,” he admitted, adding,” But we did.”

“Yes,” Sage agreed. “Thanks to this little guy.” He nudged Patch, who felt his whole body burn with embarrassment.

He was about to be modest and say it was nothing, but suddenly Clover turned on him.

“Don’t thank him!” she snapped, glaring at Patch. “He’s the reason we are in this mess to begin with!”

Patch frowned. “I’m sorry—“

“We don’t need your apology. We need you gone!” She pushed him backwards.

“But-But I have nowhere else to go!” Patch objected. “Mac betrayed me and—“

“And you betrayed us.” Clover narrowed her eyes. “We’re even, so you can leave— _now_!” She pushed him again.

Maurice appeared between them. “Now hold on,” he said. “This is a decision for King Julien to make.”

Anger still blazed in Clover’s eyes, and she opened her mouth to give a sharp retort, but then reconsidered. The look on Maurice’s face revealed that he might have guessed what she had been about to say, and even though she didn’t speak the words out loud, they still echoed in Patch’s head.

_And what if he’s dead… No! He can’t be dead! I just met him— I can’t lose my brother again, for good._

They all fell silent. Finally Maurice sighed. “Let’s just return to the plane and see if the others are okay. Hopefully that’s where they thought to go.”

“But what about _him_?” Clover pointed to Patch.

“Him, too,” the aye-aye answered.

“But—”

Maurice interrupted her. “We can discuss this with the others.” He walked off with Sage right behind him. Clover shot Patch another angry glare, before running to catch up to her friends. Patch sighed miserably and followed, trailing a little behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

The sun rose in the sky and it was almost at its highest point as the lemurs arrived at the tree where the plane was held up by the thick branches. The king jumped into his chair and turned to the others as they piled into the room. For a moment he remembered gathering here after the return of his brother and how excited he was. Now… everything changed from yesterday and they had to find a way to save their friends.

At once, everyone started talking to each other, and Julien strained to hear what each of them were saying.

“What are we going to do?” Lilian questioned fearfully.

“We need to rescue our friends!” Weasel insisted, appearing determined.

“Yes, but how?” Emily asked. She blinked up at King Julien. “The fossa will be on high alert. We can’t just sneak into their camp and leave without being noticed.”

Suddenly an deafening screech split through the air. “We’re all gonna die!”

Everyone turned to Mort, who giggled innocently. “Willie’s not here, so someone has to say it,” he explained.

Julien rolled his eyes. “Look, we are safe here for the time being. The fossa don’t know we’re here.”

“But they could find us,” Weasel pointed out, a grave look on his face, and Julien watched as panic slowly entered his friends’ eyes as if reality was just dawning on them.

Lilian’s voice rose to a fearful squeak. “What are we going to do?”

The others started screeching in terror, too. Mort ran around the room, screaming. Meanwhile, Weasel stood protectively in front of Lilian. Emily appeared beside Julien, grabbing his arm.

“We need to hide you, Your Majesty— Somewhere nobody will ever look,” she insisted.

Julien snatched his arm away from her, but before he could speak, Masikura appeared beside them.

 _About time!_ he thought, wondering where she had run off to after she disappeared in the jungle. “You can’t hide forever, Your Highness,” she said in a wise tone. “You must stand and fight.”

“Fight?” Lilian looked like the chameleon just announced that she just grew wings and was about to take off.

“Yeah, fight?” Weasel agreed with Lilian. “How are we— a bunch of lemurs— supposed to fight the fossa? There wouldn’t be a fight. It’d be us handing ourselves over to them, if we come out of hiding!”

Julien stood up. “No, Masikura is right,” he declared. He glanced up at the top of the chair and hopped up there so he could look down at his subjects. “All our lives we’ve been running away from the fossa; we hide in the face of danger. We helplessly watch our friends and family get eaten by the things in the jungle. But no more!” he quickly went on when he saw the look of horror on their faces.

“No more!” Julien repeated with feeling. “No more running. No more hiding. No more deaths!”

He expected cheers to greet his final words, but instead they just stared up at him with round eyes. Julien sighed. Did any of that motivate them to rescue their friends?

“Look, you can all go into hiding if you want, but I’m going to save our friends, even if I have to go alone.”

Secretly, he hoped they would call his bluff, but a scruffing from the end of the plane like the patter of paws distracted everyone. Weasel stood protectively in front of Lilian; Emily hid behind Julien, and the king made a decision to protect her even at the cost of his life; And Mort wrapped his tail around his small body as if he thought that’d turn him invisible.

They all stood there in tensed silence, waiting. The pawsteps came closer. Did the fossa find them already? Well, they were safe for a short time…

Julien jumped out of his chair and slowly walked toward the curtain that shielded the rest of the plane from sight. He listened. Footsteps; definitely footsteps. He gestured to Weasel to get on the other side of the entrance.

Julien listened again. He judged how far away the footsteps were by sound, and he started counting down on his fingers to show Weasel when to strike.

_Three… Two… One… Now!_

The same moment the curtains opened, Julien and Weasel jumped into action. At first it was too confusing to see what they were attacking, only that it was an animal with soft gray fur.

Suddenly a familiar voice hit his ears. “Stop! Ouch… Stop!”

Julien froze, paw in the air to land another blow. He blinked. “MoMo?”

The aye-aye widened his eyes. “King Julien?”

For a moment neither lemur moved. Then Julien threw his arms around Maurice. “Oh, MoMo, I was so worried about you! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Maurice insisted. “But what about you? We were sure you were… um…” He cleared his throat, then waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, nevermind! All that matters is that you’re here!”

Julien blinked, confused. “We?” he asked.

Out of the shadows came three more lemurs: One large and muscular; another orange and female; the last looked exactly like Julien except for a black spot on his chest and had green eyes instead of yellow.

Julien narrowed his eyes. “Why did you bring _him_ with you? He’s a traitor!”

Patch hung his head, understanding his brother’s anger. The last time they saw each other, Patch was handing Julien over to the fossa.

“I wanted to send him away,” Clover told her king. “But Maurice—” She shot him a glare—” wouldn’t let me.”

Julien snapped his head to his adviser. “And why not, Maurice?” he demanded.

“I-I didn’t think it was necessary. He feels really bad about everything. If it wasn’t for him, none of us would have escaped the fossa. He came up with the plan to help us. He wants to make up for the mistakes he made. Please, Your Majesty, let him stay.”

Patch stared at Maurice. _Did he really feel that strong about me staying?_ he wondered. Yeah, he defended him in front of Clover and now Julien, but Patch didn’t realize he was so passionate about his brother forgiving him.

Julien turned to Patch, his eyes still narrowed. “I’m going to give you one chance to show your loyalty. Got it? I’m going to keep a very close eye on you.” As if to make his point, Julien leaned closer to him, eyeing him up and down.

Patch nodded eagerly, relief making him lightheaded.

Clover sniffed beside him, clearly unhappy about Julien’s decision, but she didn’t question her king. Turning away from Patch, her tail flicking angrily, she looked Julien in the eyes. “So what are we going to do about the fossa? They still have most of the kingdom.”

“We were just discussing that,” Julien responded. He hurried over to his chair and Maurice positioned himself on the floor beneath the throne. Clover stood guard by the door, while the rest of the lemurs-- Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Mort, Patch, and Sage-- settled down facing Julien.

Patch glanced around nervously, painfully aware that nobody here trusted him, and for good reason, too. He sighed inwardly and turned his focus on his brother, determined to show that his loyalty has changed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was easy picking up on the scent trail, and Sander followed it. The rest of his patrol piled behind him, chatting and carelessly setting down their paws, stepping on twigs and rustling through bushes. Sander sighed and paused.

Turning sharply to them, he growled,” Do you want the lemurs to hear us coming? Be more quiet!”

One of the fossa, Adain, sniffed. “Why are we even going after them? We have plenty of lemurs back in camp.”

“Yeah,” Heath agreed. “Maybe even enough that Mac wouldn’t notice if one or two goes missing.” He licked his lips hungrily.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Simon looked excited.

Sander thrust his muzzle close to Simon’s. “You touch a hair on _any_ of the lemurs, you’ll have to answer to Mac.”

Adain sighed. “Why are we keeping them hostage and not eating them?”

“Because Mac said so,” Sander snarled.

“Mac says this; Mac wants that,” Heath mocked. “Exactly when did he become leader? I don’t remember voting for him.”

Simon growled. “No leader.”

Sander narrowed his eyes. “Since he found an alternative to eating than just lemurs. Before him, we were starving all the time, waiting around for the lemurs to let their guard down and then attacking the kingdom and still not getting enough to feed everyone.”

The three fossa exchanged glances. “But still, none of what he’s doing is making any sense,” Heath insisted. “What he’s doing isn’t fossa behavior. Fossa eat, fossa sleep; we do not plot!”

“He’s bringing a new era to fossa kind,” Sander growled, hardly believing that they are saying such things about Mac. “You can either accept it or leave and never return.”

Adain lashed his tail. “Now hold on. If Mac is the leader, _you_ can’t banish us!”

“I’m his second-in-command,” Sander reminded him. “And I’m sure if Mac heard you talking like that, he’d agree with me.”

The three fossa hung their heads and growled softly, but otherwise said nothing.

Sander turned his back to them. “Now come on. Let’s keep going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

“Okay, everyone understands the plan?” the king asked, and his friends— and his brother— nodded. “Let’s move out, then.” Julien jumped out of his throne, landing beside Maurice, who gave him an encouraging nod.

Across the room, Weasel and Lilian were talking. “I’d feel a lot better if you stayed here,” he told her.

She glared at him. “No way! I’m coming. I have friends there, too! I want to help them.” Determination burned in her eyes.

Julien admired her courage, but he agreed with Weasel. Lilian’s way too young to go on a mission like this. He’d never forgive himself if anything happened to her. “You’re staying here, Lilian,” he ordered, and before she could object, he turned to Emily. “You, too.”

She stared at him. “You can’t be serious! I want to go with you!”

“And I want you here, where it’s safe,” he retorted. He took her by the hand and looked into her green eyes. “I can’t lose you. Please, stay where I _know_ you’d be safe. Please,” he begged.

Emily continued to hesitate.

“Stay here and keep Lilian safe,” Julien pleaded with her. “Don’t think of it as being left behind. Think of it as an important assignment from your king.” He let go of her and puffed out his chest, earning him a giggle from the pretty lemur, despite the situation they were in.

“Well, technically, without your crown, you’re just an everyday lemur,” she teased.

He laughed then grew serious again. “Do be safe, okay?”

She smiled. “You, too.” She glanced at Lilian. “We’ll be alright, huh?” She nudged her, but Lilian sniffed as if she was still sour about being left behind, but she didn’t argue anymore like she saw no point. A decision has been made. Emily and Lilian were staying on the plane.

“I’m staying behind, too,” Sage announced, taking a step forward.

Clover stared at him. “But Sage,” she objected,” we may need your muscles.”

“No you don’t,” Sage calmly responded.

“Y-Yes, we might,” Clover stammered.

“No, you don’t. You can handle this without me.” Sage took hold of her hand and looked her in the eyes. In that moment, many words passed unsaid between them, and Clover reluctantly agreed to let him stay.

“That’s settled,” Julien said with authority. He was glad of Emily’s and Lilian’s safety, even more so that Sage would be here to watch over them. But still there was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hoped they all make it out of this alive, and him and his subjects return to their rightful home. Then he turned to Patch, anger rising in him when he recalled what his brother did to him a short time ago. “You remember your part?” the king sniffed.

Patch nodded determinaly. “Yes… Your Majesty,” he quickly added.

Turning his back on his brother, Julien returned to Maurice’s side. “You ready, MoMo?” he asked.

Maurice nodded. “But are you sure Patch should be live bait?” he ventured, looking uncertain.

“Well, he can’t be dead bait… unless…” Julien gasped. “MoMo! I don’t like him either, but we can’t do that!”

“That’s not what I meant!” the aye-aye hurriedly said. “I just meant, he could be in danger being bait for the fossa.”

Weasel stepped forward. “Think about it. It makes the most sense. They probably want Patch as much as they want Julien. That fossa named Mac seemed eager to throw Patch into a cage. He can distract the fossa while we sneak in and rescue our friends.”

Patch dipped his head. “I want to help, and I want to make sure Mac and his gang loses.”

Maurice grinned at him. “See, he wants to help,” he said as he turned to Julien.

“We’ll see about that,” the king responded, eyeing his brother suspiciously. He didn’t trust him, and after all this was over, he was going to throw him out of his kingdom. Only lemurs loyal to the king were allowed to stay, and thanks to his brother— that word felt sour on his tongue now— he was questioning the rest of his subjects’ loyalty. But he found comfort in telling himself that he would find all the bad lemurs so what happened yesterday will never come to pass ever again as long as there was breath in his lungs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The scent trail led the fossa to the tallest tree on the island. Sander stared up at the plane, anger burning inside him. Curse his short tail. And he wasn’t about to give credit to anyone else. There was no way for them to get the lemurs now.

Sander raised a paw and knocked on the truck. What were they to do? He started pacing, murmuring to himself. “I can’t return to camp without them. Mac would surely have my tail! But we can’t reach them. What do I do?” He stopped pacing.

“Actually,” Heath pointed out,” we can climb up there, even if you can’t. We can bring them down, and—”

Sander wasn’t listening. “Think like Mac,” he growled to himself. “What would Mac do?” He glanced around, forcing his mind to function like Mac’s.

The sound of leaves rustling made Sander look up to see the branches moving like crazy. A closer look, he saw the lemurs hopping through the trees, heading toward—

“Back!” Sander snarled at his patrol. “Back the way we came!”

In a flash, the fossa were off, back to their side of the island. _Please, let us make it back before them!_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun was going down, and clouds were moving in, making it darker than usual this time of day. Patch stared upward nervously. If the clouds didn’t go away, they’d have to go on with their plan in the dark. They couldn’t retreat and wait for a clearer day. They had to rescue the other lemurs before the fossa changed their minds and decided they wanted to eat them after all.

Beside him, his brother gave out orders. “Weasel, you come with me and Maurice. We are going to sneak in and release my subjects, while Patch distracts the fossa. Mort, you stay here and guide everyone back to the kingdom.” Julien’s gaze burned into Mort’s eyes. “Do you understand?”

Patch glanced at Mort. He only just met him, but he could tell that the little lemur wasn’t the brightest around and he lets his feelings blind him.

Mort nodded absently.

Sighing, Julien turned his back on Mort and addressed his brother. “All you need to do is distract the fossa,” he told him, and Patch dipped his head. “Okay, Clover—”

The king was interrupted by a low growl behind them. Patch spun around to see a patrol of fossa stalking toward the lemurs, their lips drawn back as they snarled.

Suddenly Julien pushed him forward, closer to the fossa. “Go on now,” the king whispered. “Show where your loyalty lies. Either distract them or join them.”

Patch hesitated and not because he thought about joining the fossa side, but because it was four fossa against him, a lemur. For the first time in his life, as he stood there, looking into the mouths of Sander and his patrol, he compared his size to theirs; he pictured their teeth ripping open his flesh and how his death would be quick and painful.

“What are you waiting for?” Julien whispered in his ear. “Distract them and we’ll sneak off.”

“I knew we couldn’t trust him,” he heard Clover mutter under her breath.

Patch gulped. _I can do this… I can do this…_ “H-Hey, c-cat-face,” he called to Sander, who snapped around to glare at him.

“You,” he growled in a menacing voice. He stalked closer to Patch. “I always came in second since Mac brought you home.”

Patch looked at his brother; then his brother’s adviser and his bodyguard. He turned to Weasel and Mort. It dawned on him that these lemurs were giving him a chance to show that he no longer felt any loyalty toward the fossa. Suddenly ice cold calmness came over him, and he looked back at Sander. “Well, you are his _second_ -in-command,” he reminded him.

“Since you came along, he has put more faith in you than me. You get all the important jobs and I get the useless stuff. That is until he said you were never a real fossa and he’s been entrusting me with the important stuff again.” Patch opened his mouth to interrupt, but Sander went on without any notice. “But then you planned the escape, and now my job is on the line. I should kill you right here to get it over with, but I won’t.”

Patch blinked. “You won’t?” he echoed.

“Nope,” Sander answered. “I’m going to take you back to Mac and let him decide what to do with you. He’ll be so grateful that he’ll never think about demoting me ever again!” A wild light shined in Sander’s eyes, and Patch realized that he was so obsessed with wanting to praise Mac that it was slowly making him insane. A sane fossa was a dangerous creature, but one who was losing his mind… that was unimaginable…

Suddenly an idea came to him. He could use Sander’s obsession against him. “If you want to take me to Mac, you’ll have to catch me first!” Patch called to him as he took off in a random direction.

Julien watched his brother run away, unsure if that was the bravest thing he’s ever seen or the stupidest. Either way, Patch was putting his life on the line for Julien and his subjects.

Sander started after Patch but froze when he noticed that his patrol wasn’t following him. “Come on, you lazy cats!” he growled, turning to them.

“But Sander,” objected Heath. “Why chase after the fake fossa failure? We have the king right here. We can take him to Mac instead. He’ll be grateful to have him, too.”

Sander glared at him. “He’ll be more grateful to have that coward!”

“But Sander,” Adain tried protesting, but Sander glared at him, and growled again,” Come _on!_ ”

Heath and Adain exchanged looks, then looked at Simon who shrugged and ran after Sander. The other two were right behind him, leaving Julien and his friends to stare after them in disbelief.

“Patch did it,” Weasel whispered like he couldn’t believe the king’s brother had held up his part of the plan.

“I can’t believe it,” Clover admitted.

“I told you he wanted to help us,” Maurice told his friends.

Julien bit his lip, praying that Patch was fast enough to outrun the fossa. Then he turned toward the camp and murmured,” Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

The dark clouds overhead warned of an impending storm. It was difficult to tell whether or not the sun had gone down yet, since it hadn't been visible for an hour anyways. It was almost pitch black, and Patch tripped over roots, knocked his head against low-hanging branches, and even stubbed his toe once or twice.

But fear drove him on. He could hear the fossa behind him, could feel them breathing down his neck. He pushed harder, but it was no use. He couldn’t shake them. Suddenly he heard growling in his ear, and he jerked to a halt. Did the fossa split up and surround him? He could have sworn that they were behind him.

Narrowing his eyes, he could just see an outline of a fossa in front of him. He turned to run the other way, but more fossa outlines blocked his path. Trembling, he crouched down. He was gonna die.

 _I just hope my brother was able to rescue everyone,_ Patch thought, his heart racing, and his mind whirling. He always thought he was one of the fossa. Mac raised him to be like one, and yeah, the others bullied him, but he never thought he’d be eaten by them. He gulped and crouched lower, hoping the ground would open up and swallow him. That’d be a less painful way to go than dying at the jaws of the fossa…

Then the fossa in front of him jumped over him, and landed in between him and Sander. The second-in-command growled,” I don’t know who you are, but you better move out of my way.”

Just then lightning flashed in the sky, and for a brief moment the fossa was illuminated and instantly she was recognizable. Patch stared, completely in shock. In that moment of brightness, Patch saw Sander’s jaw fall open and the other fossa looked dumbfounded. Then it was dark again.

“Mary Ann!” gasped Sander. “Wha--? How…? I-I don’t understand.”

“W-What are you doing back?” Heath stammered.

Mary Ann stood her ground. “I have returned,” she announced. “I know about Mac’s plans and I’m here to put a stop to it.”

A long ago memory flashed in Patch’s mind. He remembered the fossa that was captured by the king and his followers and who went missing for several days, to return completely different. She worked hard to teach her campmates how to talk and behave, and finally her affects paid off. She transformed the fossa into modern day animals. When she came up with the decree not to eat lemurs, Mac thought of an alternative food for them to eat instead. Mary Ann and Mac worked together at first, but soon every fossa started turning to Mac with all their problems instead of Mary Ann and before long, she was casted out. For a while, the fossa left the lemurs alone. Then Karl showed up and told Mac about his plan to capture the lemurs and exile Julien.

Now Mary Ann has returned, and it was clear even in the dark that she wasn’t happy. “What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded. “I thought we looked beyond our savage ways and turned to a brighter future. What happened to us becoming a modernized pack?”

Sander growled,” Thanks to Mac, we are a modernized pack.”

“You weakened us,” Adain snarled.

“Yeah!” Simon agreed, and Patch noticed his outline crouching down as he faced Mary Ann. “Were weak, now strong.”

“He’s right,” Heath said. “You let the lemurs mock us without fear. But Mac’s plan to capture the lemurs reminded them that we are still a threat.”

Patch listened in horror. Now that he didn’t have the thought in his head that he was a real fossa, he realized as they talked about lemurs, they meant him, too. A voice in his ear made him jump.

“Run, brother to the king, run.”

Startled, Patch looked around, and he thought he saw an outline of an animal hanging from a tree, but before he could make sure, it disappeared before his eyes. Looking back at the fossa, he realized that they were distracted, arguing about who was the better leader. As quietly as possible, he tiptoed away, glancing over his shoulder to make sure none of the fossa noticed him leaving. Once he was at a safe distance, he paused and listened. Silence.

With a sigh of relief, he took in his surroundings. It was way too dark to see where he was, so how was he going to retrace his steps back to the fossa camp? He was trying to decide what to do when that voice whispered in his ear again.

“This way.”

Patch stared hard. Was that a… chameleon?

“Come on,” it urged. “We need to go before—“

The chameleon was interrupted by loud yowling coming from where Patch left the fossa.

“He’s gone!” Heath yowled.

“Where did he go?” Adain demanded.

“Follow his scent!” Sander growled.

“Run!”

Taking the chameleon’s advice, Patch spun around and took off in the jungle.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kevin was angry. He opened up the sky and the rain came pouring down. The wind picked up, and thunder sounded loudly, as lightning flashed above. Within moments, the lemurs were soaked through to their skin. Julien and his friends were hidden behind some rocks close to the cliff where the fossa lived.

Under the cover of darkness, the king and his subjects crept up onto the camp. Most of the fossa was taking cover from the rain, but one or two were guarding the prisoners. Julien signaled for his friends to follow him behind the cages.

Not risking talking so near the enemy, Julien gestured with his hands and hoped they understood. Weasel and Maurice walked over to separate cages, while Clover stayed with Julien. His subjects looked surprised but relieved to see their king. Julien put his finger to his lips to warn them not to make a sound. Then he gestured to Clover, who quietly untied the vines, and Julien watched with satisfaction as the bamboo cage fell apart.

The closest lemur threw her arms around Julien. She opened her mouth to thank him, but quickly Julien shhed her. Turning to Maurice and Weasel, he saw that they, too, had pulled the cages apart and were hurrying over to them. Julien signaled that it was time to go, but suddenly a yowl sounded behind them.

“Hey! They’re escaping!”

In a flash, the fossa was on their feet and surrounding the lemurs. Julien gulped and stood in front of his subjects with Maurice, Weasel, and Clover. The pack parted to let Mac through. He glared down at Julien.

“You,” he growled in a low menacing voice. “You were supposed to be lost in the jungle!”

Julien bravely stood his ground, even though every instinct in him was screaming at him to run far away from here. “I’ve come to rescue my people.”

Mac crouched down. “I don’t care what I promised Karl. I’m gonna kill you right here to make sure you never get in my way again.”

Julien gulped and braced himself. He refused to leave his subjects. Right when Mac was about to pounce, something slammed into the fossa, sending him stumbling sideways. Julien stared in shock at his brother. Patch glared at Mac.

“You lied to me,” the king’s brother angrily reminded the lead fossa. “All my life, you lied to me. You said I was a real fossa and that I belonged with the pack. Even when none of the others wanted me around, you stood up for me. But it was all a lie. You didn’t really care about me. All the time, you were just plotting to capture all the lemurs.”

Mac regained his balance. “You’re wrong, Elliot—“

“My name is Patch,” he interrupted.

Mac narrowed his eyes. “You’re wrong— Patch,” he spat out his name. “At first, I did care for you and did raise you to be a true fossa even if you didn’t have the teeth or the claws like one. I didn’t know your brother was the king. Then that fanaloka showed up and told me who you were. That's when I realized my ambition was stronger than my friendship was you. Together, me and him plotted this scheme, and he told me I could use you to strike fear into the hearts of the lemurs.” He threw his head back and laughed.

Rage rose in Patch. Before he could realize what he was doing, he flung himself at Mac and they went rolling in the mud, stopping just in time before they fell over the cliff. Patch looked over the edge at the long drop and gulped.

“I don't need you anymore,” Mac growled as he stood to his paws. As he glared down at the small lemur, lightning flashed above, illuminating the intimidating form of the lead fossa.

Patch stared up at him, trying to come up with a plan to save himself. Then he noticed how unsteady Mac was in the mud and an idea struck in his mind.

“You're right, Mac,” he said, lowering his gaze.

“I am?” Mac looked shocked.

“You don't need me anymore,” Patch conceded, carefully turning in the mud so his back was facing him. “And if I'm not a fossa, then what am I?”

“A lemur!” his brother called out to him, and Patch glanced at him. “I'm sorry for all I said. I was just upset because you lied to me and tricked me. But after seeing the way you fooled those fossa into following you into the jungle so we can sneak into their camp… Well, it showed bravery and courage… and loyalty. I'm proud to call you my brother. Come with us, and we can be a family again.”

Patch’s throat tightened with emotion. His eyes started watering and he was about to run to his brother. But Mac blocked his way.

“Nobody is going anywhere,” He snarled, glaring at Patch, then Julien. “Expect back into those cages.” He took a step toward Patch. “But you… you're gonna die right here.”

Remembering his plan, Patch stood his ground, even when the fossa crouched down and pounced. Timing it perfectly, Patch ducked and Mac slipped in the mud, stumbling close to the edge of the cliff. Patch turned to see his old friend go over the edge. But at the last moment, Mac grabbed Patch’s tail and dragged him over with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters but I do own a few characters in this story.

Julien watched his brother disappear over the edge of the cliff. “Patch!” he screamed. With Maurice close behind him, the king ran over there. Relief made him lightheaded when he noticed Patch hanging by a root sticking out of the side of the cliff. There was no sign of Mac, and Julien dared to look all the way down. He gasped when he saw the broken body of the lead fossa.

Maurice’s voice brought his attention away from the horrifying scene. “Don't worry, Patch. We'll have you pulled up soon,” he promised.

“Please hurry!” Patch gasped. “I'm slipping!” As he said that, the root shifted and dirt crumpled away. “Help!” he begged.

“Come on, Your Majesty,” Maurice said, shaking him. “We need to save Patch!”

“Right.” Julien quickly thought of a plan. “Lower me down by my tail and I’ll grab him.”

“You sure, Your Majesty?” his adviser questioned.

“Yes, Maurice!” snapped Julien. “We don’t have much time!”

“Help!” Patch screamed, and Julien looked down to see more dirt falling away.

Maurice took hold of Julien’s tail and Julien slowly climbed down, ignoring the sharp pain in his tail. He had to rescue his brother no matter what. But Patch was just out of reach. Julien stained to grab his outstretched hand, but he couldn’t.

“It’s no use,” Patch yelled over the thunder and the rain hitting the ground. “I should just let go…”

“No!” Julien screamed. “I thought I lost you once. I’m not about to lose you now! Just. Have. To try. Harder…” As he spoke, he stretched out as far as possible, but Patch was still just out of reach.

“Your Majesty!” Maurice gasped from the edge of the cliff, tugging at his tail. “I— I can’t hold on— much longer.”

Julien was faced with a difficult situation. Either he let his brother fall to his death or Maurice drops him and they both die. He knew the decision he had to make. His subjects needed him, but the kingdom survived without Patch before and would again.

“I’m sorry for tricking you,” Patch said, locking eyes with his brother. “I wish we could have been a real family.”

“Me too,” Julien agreed, starting to cry.

They stared at each other, which said more things than any words ever could. Maurice broke the silence.

“Your Majesty!” he gasped, and Julien felt his grip on his tail loosening.

“I’m sorry, Patch,” he whispered.

“Me too.”

Patch was the first to break eye contact. With a deep breath, he braced himself to let go.

“Nooooo!!”

The scream got louder and closer, then Mort appeared out of nowhere and flung himself down Julien’s tail, crawling over his back and his head, but he didn’t stop there. Thinking fast, Julien grabbed his brushy tail.

“Mort!” he gasped.

Mort didn’t answer. Instead he reached out for Patch, who stared at him in shock. “Take my hand!” the little mouse lemur shouted.

Snapped out of it, Patch reached out and grabbed Mort’s hand. Then Patch climbed up the line of lemurs, followed by Mort, and then Julien. As soon as everyone was on solid ground, Maurice stumbled away from the cliff and let out a relieved sigh.

“Is everyone okay?” the aye-aye asked.

“I’m okay,” Julien answered.

“Me too,” Mort replied.

“I’m fine,” Patch responded. He stood up and helped his brother back to his feet. Then he turned to Mort. “Thank you, Mort. You saved my life. But I thought you hated me,” he reminded him, confused.

Mort shifted his feet. “I did,” he confessed. “But you risked everything today to help King Julien and… Well, everyone. I realize that you changed. You made up for betraying us when you lead those fossa into the jungle away from us and then again when you killed the lead fossa.”

Patch was touched. Before he could stop himself, he threw his arms around Mort and brought him into a hug. Mort struggled at first, then hugged him back. Patch let go of Mort when Julien walked over to him.

“Now, we can be a real family,” the king was saying, but was interrupted by growling. Spinning around, Patch watched in horror as Sander and his patrol bursted out of the trees. “Stop right there!” he snarled, crouching down. “I’m gonna kill you, and then Mac would be—” He stopped talking and sat up. “Hey, where’s Mac?”

The other fossa in the camp was staring in horror at the edge of the cliff. Hesitantly, Sander walked over there and even more slowly, looked over the side. He gasped and stumbled back, suddenly looking sick.

“N-No, no, it can’t— this can’t be happening,” the second-in-command stammered.

“Unless you wish to join him, I’d suggest you run far, far away from here and never return.”

Everyone, lemurs and fossa, turned to the speaker. “Mary Ann?” Julien couldn’t believe his eyes. “I-Is that really you?”

“Yes, King Julien,” she replied, stepping into the camp. “I have returned to claim my rightful place as head of the fossa.”

As she spoke, the rain abruptly stopped and the clouds parted to let a spotlight of sunlight come through to shine on Mary Ann. It was a sign from the Gods. Mary Ann was the true leader of the fossa. Every fossa seemed to realize this, too, and immediately gathered around her, growling their praises and their congratulations. All expect Sander.

The former second-in-command still stood by the cliff, looking shook to the core. He looked up as Mary Ann walked over to him. “I’m gonna give you a choice,” she growled. “Leave and never return.”

“Or?” Sander choked out.

“Or join your friend at the bottom of this cliff.”

“Y-Yes, okay, I’m going.” Head down, he walked away, toward the trees. Patch watched him go, hardly believing he just left without a fight. He was completely in shock with what happened to Mac. Sander looked up at Mac and worshipped the ground he walked on. Now he was gone and Sander was all alone. Patch actually felt sorry for him.

A familiar voice spoke nearby. “It’s time to take everyone home, Your Majesty.”

Patch spun around and gaped at the chameleon. “You!”

“I see you’ve met Masikura,” said Julien. “She’s the royal physic… something or other. She tells me what’s going to happen in the future. Well, normally she does!” he shouted, turning on her. “This time she didn’t warn me in time!”

“I was torn about warning you, Your Majesty,” she said. “Yes, I knew your brother will return to you and would betray you, but I also knew you two needed to work things out yourselves, so I only interfered when I had to.”

Julien still looked pretty upset, but before he could reply, Mary Ann walked over to him. “The chameleon is correct,” she said. “It’s time you returned to your kingdom.”

“Yes, please,” Maurice wholeheartedly agreed.

“So, wait,” Clover interrupted, looking confused. “What does this mean for fossa and lemur kind?”

“As leader of the fossa,” Mary Ann replied,” I stand by my decree not to eat lemurs, so you are safe. Mac was good for one thing, coming up with an alternative to food than just lemurs, and we will stick to that.”

“Sounds good.” Julien smiled. Then he turned to Patch, wrapping his arm around his neck. “Come, brother, let’s go home.”

_Home,I’m finally going home…_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Deep in the jungle, in an abandoned airship, Karl sat with his feet on the table with a cup of tea. He was relaxed for the first time in a long time. Julien— his nemesis— finally taken care of. Lost somewhere out there on the island, separated from his friends forever, while his subjects were slaves to the fossa.

“Ah,” he breathed out. “So this is what victory feels like.” He paused, then said,” I like it.”

As he sat there, his hissing cockroach friend crawled up his arm and rested on his shoulder. “Ah, Chauncey, isn’t this nice?” The cockroach whispered something in his ear, right when he was taking a sip from his drink, making him spit it out when he heard what he said. “What!” he demanded, throwing his tea to the ground. “Julien found his way back to his friends?” Chauncey whispered in his ear again. “And he forgave his brother?” Jumping out of his seat, Karl ran to the next room to check on something.

“Oh, it’s still here,” he panted, picking up the leaf crown. Returning to the other room, he placed the crown on the table and sat back down. “At least, I still have this. He can’t be a true king without—”

He was interrupted by a crash at the end of the airship. “What was that?” Karl gasped. He ran to go check it out, but all he saw was a pile of junk that fell from a shelf. Retracing his steps, he went back to the dining room. At first, he didn’t notice anything; then he realized that the crown was gone.

Knowing who was to blame, he slammed his fist onto the table. “Julien!!”

Outside, King Julien placed his crown upon his head, a shiver running down his spine. “Ohh, this feels so good!” he whispered.

“It’s good to see that back on your head,” Maurice commented, and Mort nodded eagerly, but his eyes were fixed on Julien’s feet.

Patch blinked. “Um… why is Mort staring at your feet?” he hesitantly asked.

Instead of answering, Julien glared down at Mort. “Stop looking at the royal feet!” he demanded.

“Hey, you don’t have to yell at him,” Emily defended the little mouse lemur. “At least he isn’t attacking your feet like he normally does.”

Weasel crossed his arms. “Still really weird how he just stares at them, though,” he muttered.

Lilian nudged him. “Emily’s right. He’s showing willpower by not hugging on them right now.”

Patch listened, very confused. “Is this normal?” he whispered to Maurice, but it wasn’t the aye-aye who answered him.

“Very normal,” Clover insisted.

Maurice nodded. “Normal is nice.”

“Normal,” Sage murmured. “What is normal? How do we achieve it? Is it good or is it bad?”

“Um… yeah, okay,” Clover stammered, and Maurice and Patch shrugged, showing they were just as confused as her. Patch turned his attention back on his brother as the king, his love interest, Emily, the black-and-orange lemur, Weasel, and the other female ringtail, Lilian, argued about Mort’s obsession with Julien’s feet. _So, this is what normal feels like,_ Patch thought. _I like it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!
> 
> THE END!!


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